embanked with the exception of a small opening fitted with sluices
to supply water to a canal; and from its northern side, which alone
admits of an open view, the southern peak of San Cristobal may
be seen, about 73° to the north-east. Its banks, which are about
eighty feet high, rise with a gentle slope in a westerly direction,
till they join Mount Maiba, a hill about 500 feet high. The soil,
like that of the embankments of the other volcanic lakes, consists
of rapilli and lava, and is thickly wooded.

[Lake Palakpakan.] Close by is another lake, Palakpakan, of nearly
the same circumference, and formed in a similar manner (of black
sand and rapilli). Its banks are from thirty to one hundred feet
high. From its north-western edge San Cristobal lifts its head 70° to
the northeast. Its waters are easily reached, and are much frequented
by fishermen.

[Palm brandy.] About nine o'clock, a.m., I rode from Calauan to Pila,
and thence in a northeasterly direction to Santa Cruz, over even,
broad, and well-kept roads, through a palm-grove a mile long and a
mile and a half broad, which extends down to the very edge of the
lagoons. The products of these palm trees generally are not used
for the production of oil but for the manufacture of brandy. Their
fruit is not allowed to come to maturity; but the buds are slit open,
and the sweet sap is collected as it drips from them. It is then
allowed to ferment, and subjected to distillation. [66] As the sap
is collected twice a day, and as the blossoms, situated at the top
of the tree, are forty or fifty feet above the ground, bamboos are
fastened horizontally, one above the other, from one tree to another,
to facilitate the necessary ascent and descent. The sap collector
stands on the lower cross-piece while he holds on to the upper.