were fed with wheat (live animals can be transported without roads),
while at the same time the seaports were importing foreign grain. [141]
The cause of this condition of affairs in that country is to be sought
less in a disordered state of finance, than in the enforcement of
the Government maxim which enjoins the isolation of separate provinces.


CHAPTER XVII


[Mt. Isaróg.] The Isaróg (pronounced Issaró) rises up in the middle
of Camarines, between San Miguel and Lagonoy bays. While its eastern
slope almost reaches the sea, it is separated on its western side by
a broad strip of inundated land from San Miguel Bay. In circumference
it is at least twelve leagues; and its height 1,966 meters. [142]
Very flat at its base, it swells gradually to 16°, and higher up
to 21° of inclination, and extends itself, in its western aspect,
into a flat dome-shaped summit. But, if viewed from the eastern side,
it has the appearance of a circular chain of mountains rent asunder
by a great ravine. On Coello's map this ravine is erroneously laid
down as extending from south to north; its bearing really is west to
east. Right in front of its opening, and half a league south from Goa,
lies the pretty little village of Rungus, by which it is known. The
exterior sides of the mountain and the fragments of its large crater
are covered with impenetrable wood. Respecting its volcanic eruptions
tradition says nothing.

[Primitive mountaineers.] The higher slopes form the dwelling-place
of a small race of people, whose independence and the customs
of a primitive age have almost entirely separated them from the