situated on the bay of Lamon, opposite to the Island of Alabat, winds
along the narrow watercourse of the Mapon river, through deep ravines
with perpendicular cliffs of clay. I observed several terrace-formed
rice-fields similar to those so prevalent in Java, an infrequent
sight in the Philippines. Presently the path led us into the very
thick of the forest. Nearly all the trees were covered with aroides
and creeping ferns; amongst them I noticed the angiopteris, pandanus,
and several large specimens of the fan palm.

[Mapon river.] Three leagues from Lucban the river flows under a rock
supported on prismatically shaped pillars, and then runs through a
bed of round pebbles, composed of volcanic stone and white lime, as
hard as marble, in which impressions of shell-fish and coral can be
traced. Further up the river the volcanic rubble disappears, and the
containing strata then consist of the marble-like pebbles cemented
together with calcareous spar. These strata alternate with banks of
clay and coarse-grained soil, which contain scanty and badly preserved
imprints of leaves and mussel-fish. Amongst them, however, I observed
a flattened but still recognizable specimen of the fossil melania. The
river-bed must be quite five hundred feet above the level of the sea.

[Bamboo raft ferry.] About a league beyond Mauban, as it was getting
dusk, we crossed the river, then tolerably broad, on a wretched leaking
bamboo raft, which sank at least six inches beneath the water under
the weight of our horses, and ran helplessly aground in the mud on
the opposite side.

[Visitors to festival.] The tribunal or common-house was crowded with
people who had come to attend the festival which was to take place
on the following day. The cabezas wore, in token of their dignity,