After a hearty breakfast, or rather dinner, and expressing their thanks to the padre, they rode back to Santa Cruz, where they arrived at an early hour, and at nine o’clock in the evening they embarked in their bancas for Manila.
Los Baños.In the morning they found themselves, after a comfortable night, at Los Baños. Here they took chocolate with the padre, to whom Mr. Sturges had a letter, who informed them that the other party had left the place the evening before for Manila.
This party had proceeded to the town of Baia, where they arrived at daylight on the 15th. Baia is quite a pretty place, and well situated; the houses are clean and comfortable, and it possessed a venerable stone church, with towers and bells. On inquiring for the padre, they found that he was absent, and it was in consequence impossible for them to procure horses to proceed to the Volcano of Taal. They therefore concluded to walk to the hot springs at Los Baños, about five miles distant. Along the road they collected a number of curious plants. Rice is much cultivated, and fields of it extend to some distance on each side of the road. Buffaloes were seen feeding and wallowing in the ditches.
At Los Baños the hot springs are numerous, the water issuing from the rock over a considerable surface. The quantity of water discharged by them is large, and the whole is collected and conducted to the bathing-houses. The temperature of the water at the mouth of the culvert was 180°.
The old bath-house is a singular-looking place, being built on the hill-side, in the old Spanish style, with large balconies, that are enclosed in the manner already described, in speaking of the houses in Manila. It is beautifully situated, and overlooks the baths and lake. The baths are of stone, and consist of two large rooms, in each of which is a niche, through which the hot water passes. This building is now in ruins, the roof and floors having fallen in.
Los Baños is a small village, but contains a respectable-looking stone church, and two or three houses of the same material. Here the party found a difficulty in getting on, for the alcalde could not speak Spanish, and they were obliged to use an interpreter, in order to communicate with him. Notwithstanding this, he is a magistrate, whose duty it is to administer laws written in that language. Finding they could not succeed even here in procuring guides or horses, they determined to remain and explore Mount Maquiling, the height of which is three thousand four hundred and fifty feet, and in the meantime to send for their bancas.
The next day they set out on their journey to that mountain, and the first part of their path lay over a gentle ascent, through cultivated grounds. Next succeeded an almost perpendicular hill, bare of trees, and overgrown with a tall grass, which it was difficult to pass through.
Such had been the time taken up, that the party found it impossible to reach the summit and return before dark. They therefore began to collect specimens; and after having obtained a full load, they returned late in the afternoon to Los Baños.
The mountain is composed of trachytic rocks and tufa, which are occasionally seen to break through the rich and deep soil, showing themselves here and there, in the deep valleys which former volcanic action has created, and which have destroyed the regular outline of the cone-shaped mountain. The tufa is generally found to form the gently-sloping plains that surround these mountains, and has in all probability been ejected from them. Small craters, of some two hundred feet in height, are scattered over the plains. The tufa is likewise exposed to view on the shores of the lake; but elsewhere, except on a few bare hills, it is entirely covered with the dense and luxuriant foliage. The tufa is generally of a soft character, crumbling in the fingers, and in it are found coarse and fine fragments of scoria, pumice, etc. The layers are from a few inches to five feet in thickness.
In the country around Los Baños, there are several volcanic hills, and on the sides of Mount Maquiling are appearances of parasitic cones, similar to those observed at the Hawaiian Islands; but time and the foliage have so disguised them, that it is difficult to determine exactly their true character.