Waterspouts are among the most imposing and picturesque of nature's phenomena in the Philippines. I have repeatedly had the good fortune to watch them form, and start on their stately march across the sea, but to my everlasting regret have never had a camera available on such occasions. They sometimes produce a rain of fishes. The scenery is never monotonous. At sea one views a constantly changing panorama of islands, many of which are picturesque in the extreme. On land one may travel over long stretches of level, fertile plains, but there are always fine mountains in the background, and once among them what pleasures await one! Some are grass-covered to their very peaks; others are buried from base to summit in the rankest tropical growth. On yet others, pine forests begin to cover the slopes at four thousand feet, and are in turn replaced by oak forests at five or six thousand feet. The numerous rushing streams and waterfalls are a joy in themselves. In one short day one may go from the tropics to the temperate zone, and come back again. Active and extinct volcanoes form a striking feature of many Philippine landscapes. Of the former, Mayon, in the province of Albay, is the delight of the vulcanologist and of the layman alike on account of its exquisite form, which is that of the theoretically perfect volcano. It rises to a height of seventy-nine hundred sixteen feet from an almost level plain, and the extreme outer periphery of its base measures approximately a hundred twenty miles. An excellent automobile road extends completely around it, well within the peripheral line above mentioned, and the trip, which has no equal in its way, may readily be made in half a day. Mayon is a storehouse of titanic energy which has frequently broken forth in the past with destructive violence. During the last eruption, which occurred in 1900, lava flowed into the sea at a distance of some fourteen kilometres [155] from the crater. During previous eruptions whole towns have been destroyed by lava flows or by falling volcanic ejecta. Mayon is quiet at present and has been repeatedly climbed of late. The trip is dangerous because of the steepness of the slopes and the unstable nature of the material composing them. It takes two days. Taal Volcano, situated on an island in Bombon Lake, and distant but thirty-nine miles from Manila, is of special interest on account of its destructive eruption on January 30, 1911, which killed some fourteen hundred people within the space of a few moments. It is very easily climbed, the elevation of the lowest point of the crater rim above the lake being only 369 feet, and the ascent gentle.