[11] The nest and bird are figured in Gray’s “Genera of Birds”; but the nest does not correspond with those found here. These are hemispherical in form, and consist for the most part of coir (coco fibers); and, as if prepared by the hand of man, the whole interior is covered with an irregular net-work of fine threads of the glutinous edible substance, as well as the upper edge, which swells gently outwards from the center towards the sides, and expands into two wing-shaped prolongations, resting on one another, by which the nest is fixed to the wall. Dr. v. Martens conjectures that the designation salangane comes from langayah, bird, and the Malay prefix sa, and signifies especially the nest as something coming from the bird.—(“Journal of Ornith.,” Jan., 1866.)
[12] Spanish Catalogue of the Paris Exhibition, 1867.
[13] “Informe sobre las Minas de Cobre,” Manila, 1862.
[14] According to the Catalogue, the following ores are found:—Variegated copper ore (cobre gris abigarrado), arsenious copper (c. gris arsenical), vitreous copper (c. vitreo), copper pyrites (pirita de cobre), solid copper (mata cobriza), and black copper (c. negro). The ores of most frequent occurrence have the following composition—A, according to an analyzed specimen in the School of Mines at Madrid; B, according to the analysis of Santos, the mean of several specimens taken from different places:—
| A | B | |
| Silicious Acid | 25.800 | 47.06 |
| Sulphur | 31.715 | 44.44 |
| Copper | 24.640 | 16.64 |
| Antimony | 8.206 | 5.12 |
| Arsenic | 7.539 | 4.65 |
| Iron | 1.837 | 1.84 |
| Lime | in traces | — |
| Loss | 0.263 | 0.25 |
| —— | —— | |
| 100.000 | 100.00 |
[15] According to the prices current with us, the value would be calculated at about $12; the value of the analyzed specimen, to which we have before referred, $14.50.
XVI
On foot to San Miguel bay.Sending my baggage from Daet to Cabusao in a schooner, I proceeded on foot, by the road to that place, to the coast on the west side of the Bay of San Miguel. We crossed the mouth of the river in a boat, which the horses swam after; but they were soon abandoned from unfitness. At the mouth of the next river, Sacavin, the water was so high that the bearers stripped themselves naked and carried the baggage over on their heads. In simple jacket and cotton hose, I found this precaution needless; indeed, according to my experience, it is both refreshing and salutary to wear wet clothes, during an uniformly high temperature; besides which, one is thereby spared many a spring over ditches, and many a roundabout course to avoid puddles, which, being already wet through, we no longer fear. After having waded over eight other little rivers we were obliged to leave the shore and pursue the road to Colasi along steep, slippery, forest paths, the place lying right in the middle of the west side of the bay. The sea-shore was very beautiful. Instead of a continuous and, at the ebb, ill-smelling border of mangroves, which is never wanting in those places where the land extends into the sea, the waves here reach the foot of the old trees of the forest, many of which were washed underneath. Amongst the most remarkable was a fringe of stately old Barringtoni, covered with orchids and other epiphytes—gorgeous trees when in flower; the red stamens, five inches long, with golden yellow anthers like tassels, depending from the boughs; and their fruit, of the size of the fist, is doubly useful to the fisherman, who employs them, on account of their specific gravity, in floating his nets, and beats them to pieces to stupefy the fish. The foremost trees stood bent towards the sea, and have been so deflected probably for a long time, like many others whose remains still projected out of the water. The destruction of this coast appears to be very considerable. Amongst the climbing palms one peculiar kind was very abundant, the stem of which, as thick as the arm, either dragged itself, leafless, along the ground, or hung in arches above the branches, carrying a crown of leaves only at its extremity; while another, from its habitat the common calamus, had caryota leaves. Wild boars are very plentiful here; a hunter offered us two at one real each.
Colasi.The direction of the flat coast which extends N.N.W. to S.S.E. from the point of Daet is here interrupted by the little peak of Colasi, which projects to the east, and has grown so rapidly that all old people remember it to have been lower. In the Visita Colasi, on the northern slope of the mountain, the sea is so rough that no boat can live in it. The inhabitants carry on fishing; their fishing-grounds lie, however, on the southern slope of the mountain, in the sheltered bay of Lalauigan, which we reached after thee hours’ journey over the ridge.