of volcanic rock suddenly plunges into a ravine, said to be three
hundred and sixty feet in depth, along the bottom of which it is
hurried away. The channel, however, is so narrow, and the vegetation
so dense, that an observer looking at it from above can not follow
its course. This waterfall has a great similarity to that which falls
from the Semeru in Java. Here, as there, a volcanic stream flowing over
vast rocky deposits forms a horizontal watercourse, which in its turn
is overshadowed with immense masses of rock. The water easily forces
its way between these till it reaches the solid lava, when it leaves
its high, narrow, and thickly-wooded banks, and plunges into the deep
chasm it has itself worn away. The pouring rain unfortunately prevented
me from sketching this fine fall. It was raining when I reached the
convento of Majaijai, and it was still raining when I left it three
days later, nor was there any hope of improvement in the weather for
another month to come. "The wet season lasts for eight or nine months
in Majaijai, and during the whole period scarcely a day passes without
the rain falling in torrents."--Estado geograph.

[Majaijai.] To ascend the volcano was under such circumstances
impracticable. According to some notes written by the Majaijai
priest, an ascent and survey of Mount Banajao was made on the 22nd
of April, 1858, by Senors Roldan and Montero, two able Spanish naval
officers, specially charged with the revision of the marine chart
of the archipelago. From its summit they took observations of Manila
cathedral, of Mayon, another volcano in Albay, and of the Island of
Polillo. They estimated the altitude of Banajao to be seven thousand
and twenty Spanish feet, and the depth of its crater to be seven
hundred. The crater formerly contained a lake, but the last eruption
made a chasm in its southern side through which the water flowed
away. [69]