horseback. The pueblos of Mogarao, Canaman, Quipayo, and Calabanga, in
this fertile district follow so thickly upon one another that they form
an almost uninterrupted succession of houses and gardens. Calabanga
lies half a league from the sea, between the mouths of two rivers,
the more southerly of which is sixty feet broad and sufficiently deep
for large trading vessels. [145]

[A bare plain and wretched village.] The road winds round the foot
of the Isaróg first to the north-east and then to the east. Soon the
blooming hedges cease, and are succeeded by a great bare plain, out of
which numerous flat hillocks raise themselves. Both hills and plain,
when we passed, served for pasturage; but from August to January they
are sown with rice; and fields of batata are occasionally seen. After
four hours we arrived at the little village of Maguiring (Manguirin),
the church of which, a tumble-down shed, stood on an equally naked
hillock; and from its neglected condition one might have guessed that
the priest was a native.

[Many mountain water courses.] This hillock, as well as the others
which I examined, consisted of the débris of the Isaróg, the more
or less decomposed trachytic fragments of hornblende rock, the
spaces between which were filled up with red sand. The number of
streams sent down by the Isaróg, into San Miguel and Lagonoy bays,
is extraordinarily large. On the tract behind Maguiring I counted, in
three-quarters of an hour, five considerable estuaries, that is to say,
above twenty feet broad; and then, as far as Goa, twenty-six more;
altogether, thirty-one: but there are more, as I did not include
the smallest; and yet the distance between Maguiring and Goa, in
a straight line, does not exceed three miles. This accounts for
the enormous quantity of steam with which this mighty condenser is