months, is uninterrupted by rain. Thunder storms occur from June to
November; most frequently in August. During the south-west monsoon
the sea is very calm; but in the middle of the north-east monsoon all
navigation ceases on the east coast. In the outskirts of Baler rice
is sown in October, and reaped in March and April. Mountain rice is
not cultivated.


CHAPTER 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