which
was rapidly extended. These attempts, which were continued with steady
perseverance, showed an astonishing deficiency of judgment, the animal
endeavoring to do much more than was in its power to accomplish. All
its endeavors, therefore, were unsuccessful, though made without
doing itself any hurt--thanks to the parachute with which Nature
had provided it. Had the kaguang not been in the habit of relying
so entirely on this convenient contrivance, it probably would have
exercised its judgment to a greater extent, and formed a more correct
estimate of its ability. The animal repeated its fruitless efforts so
often that I no longer took any notice of it, and after some time it
disappeared: but I found it again in a dark corner, under the roof,
where it would probably have waited for the night in order to continue
its flight. Evidently it had succeeded in reaching the upper edge of
the boarded wall by squeezing its body between this and the elastic
covering of bamboo hurdle-work which lay firmly imposed upon it;
so that the poor creature, which I had rashly concluded was stupid
and awkward, had, under the circumstances, manifested the greatest
possible skill, prudence, and perseverance.

[A promise of rare animals and wild people.] A priest who was
present on a visit from Calbigan promised me so many wonders in his
district--abundance of the rarest animals, and Cimarrones uncivilized
in the highest degree--that I accompanied him, on the following day,
in his journey home. In an hour after our departure we reached the
little island of Majava, which consists of perpendicular strata of
a hard, fine-grained, volcanic tufa, with small, bright crystals of
hornblende. The island of Buat (on Coello's map) is called by our
mariners Tubigan. In three hours we reached Umauas, a dependency
of Calbigan. It is situated, fifty feet above the sea, in a bay,
before which (as is so often the case on this coast) a row of small
picturesque islands succeed one another, and is exactly four leagues
from Catbalogan. But Calbigan, which we reached towards evening, is
situated two leagues N.N.E. from Umauas, surrounded by rice-fields,
forty feet above the river of the same name, and almost a league and
a half from its mouth. A tree with beautiful violet-blue panicles
of blossoms is especially abundant on the banks of the Calbigan,
and supplies a most valuable wood for building purposes in the
Philippines. It is considered equal to teak, like