we came upon what seemed to me to be a most interesting geological
formation. For the bank of the river here rose sharply in a rounded,
elongated mass, the end of which toward us was cut off, as it were,
just as one cuts off the end of a loaf of bread, and showed alternate
thin black and white strata only three or four inches thick tilted
at an angle of sixty or seventy degrees and mounting several hundred
feet in the air. The trail itself had been cut out in the side of
the mass, and was so narrow that not only was everyone ordered to
dismount, but the American horses were all unsaddled, the inch or
two so gained being important in passing along. The black and white
strata showing on the path, there was an opportunity to examine them;
the black layers were so soft and friable that they could be gouged
out with ease with the hand, and appeared to be vegetable, while the
white stripes were most probably limestone. This bit of the trail
is regarded as dangerous, because the rock overhead is continually
breaking loose and tumbling down; for this reason it was unsafe to try
to dislodge pieces for later examination. One of our _cargadores_,
as it was, fell over, his pack getting knocked in, while he himself
escaped with a bruise or two. It was a bad place! At the end of it
a host of Kalingas acclaimed us, as picturesque as the warriors we
had met at the stream, and took over the pack. Leaving the river,
we began what appeared to be an interminable climb to Lubuagan. Up
ran the trail, disappearing far ahead above us, behind the shoulder
of the ridge; and we would all be hoping (those of us to whom the
country was new) that Lubuagan would be just around the turn, only to
find we had the same sort of climb to another shoulder; the fact being
that the ridge here thrust itself out in rising echeloned spurs, each
one of which had to be turned, so that we began to doubt if there was
such a place as the capital of the Kalinga province. In truth, we had
been up since 3:30 and were nearly spent from heat and thirst. But at