scarce, while fresh butter and cheese are not to be had at any price. Goats are common and are prized both for their milk and their flesh. The Philippines are poor in carnivorous animals. A small wildcat and two species of civet-cats are the most conspicuous representatives of the order. The marsupials which are so numerous in the Australasian colonies are not found here. In Luzon and some of the other islands are numerous varieties of bats in great numbers. At nightfall in some places they are so numerous as to resemble a great flight of birds. The little vampire is there who prefers blood for his diet. Then' the large fruit-bats occur in enormous colonies. Their fur has some commercial value and the natives occasionally eat them. Smaller insectivorous bats are numerous. BIRDS FOUND Nature has been as generous to the Philippines in birds as she has been niggardly in animals. Some 590 species have been identified by ornithologists. Some of them are of great value as food and others are notable for their beauty. There are pheasants, pigeons, eagles, parrots, ducks and song birds of great variety. Here in the Philippines is found that species of swift, or sea-swallow, which builds the nest so favored by the Chinese as a food. These nests are found at the proper season in caves or upon almost inaccessible cliffs, and the gathering of them is attended with considerable risk. They are made from a salivary secretion which rapidly hardens on exposure to the air into a substance resembling white glue in appearance. The best of the nests bring almost their weight in gold from the Chinese epicures. The reptiles of the Philippines are abundant in variety and number. Crocodiles are found in the fresh-water lakes and streams, where they grow to great size. Every year they kill many men, horses, buffaloes and smaller animals. Then there are iguanas or large land and marsh lizards, the largest of which grow sometimes eight feet in length. These, however, are altogether harmless, and they are considered very good eating by those who are willing to try them. Iguana eggs are almost exactly like turtle eggs. There are other smaller varieties of lizards, some of them living on the ground and others in trees, while in the houses of Manila the littlest ones are very common and are not considered to be an annoyance. Some of the species of snakes are very venomous, although the loss of life from snake bite is not great. Pythons and other snakes of the constrictor family are very plentiful, but as they are not poisonous they are in no way dreaded. The skins of these make a capital leather and are AND HARMLESS. used a great deal for decorative work sold in shops. SNAKES, VENOMOUS There are cobras in Samar, Mindanao, and the Calamianes islands. Then there are venomous varieties known as the rice-leaf snake and the alinmorani, the bite of which is as fatal as that of a rattlesnake. Besides these there are many water-snakes which are very poisonous, some of them even in Manila bay. The fish-markets of Manila offer many varieties of fish in great quantity, nearly all strange to the American eye. Most of them, however, are salt-water fish. They form the staple animal food of the natives. Fresh-water fish are less important. Then there are several kinds of shell fish and crustaceans, all palatable and nutritious. Near Sulu there are extensive beds of pearl-oysters which yield beautiful shells and very fine pearls as well. At present the fisheries are entirely in the hands of Moro divers, and all pearls above a certain size go by right to the sultan of Sulu. Chinese buyers purchase the rest of the pearls and the shells. From another oyster, handsome black pearls are obtained. The fruits, flowers and trees of the Philippines are as varied and novel as the birds. There does not seem to be a spot in the Philippines, excepting around active volcanoes, where there is not exuberant vegetation. The climate is such as to encourage nature to do her best. Flowers seem to be more gorgeous than in any country within the temperate zone. Not only are the flowers indigenous to the Philippines found everywhere, but many transplanted to these islands have far outstripped their original growth. The geranium becomes a perfect weed in the gardens and fields of Manila, while the heliotrope grows as a great bush six feet high and a dozen feet in diameter, weighed down with a load of blossoms. Roses and tulips grow on trees. Oranges and lemons are grown here and produce their exquisite blossoms in enormous quantities. Every yard is a blaze of blossoms and flowers are so cheap that it is hardly necessary to pay for them. FRUITS IN GREATEST The fruits are even more novel than the flowers, hardly any of the northern varieties being found in the Philippines. The mango is found in its perfection and the banana will win favor from those who have never cared for it before. Pawpaws, shaddocks, oranges, lemons, limes, citrons, guavas, pineapples, cocoanuts, figs, grapes and tamarinds are names most of them familiar to us at home, although the fruit in the Philippines is superior. Less familiar dainties are the durien, the finest fruit of all, which has an exquisite flavor, but an odor like that of limburger cheese, the chica, the lomboy, the loquot, the mangosteen, the lanzon, custard apples, the santol, bread fruit, jackfruit, the mabolo, the laichee, the macapa and the avocado or alligator pear. The forests of the Philippines contain an inexhaustible supply of woods of many valuable sorts, which offer commercial opportunities as soon as the islands are opened for development. Perhaps no commercial opportunity is better than the ones that will be found in the forests. The woods range from the quick-growing palm to the hard woods which require a century for their full development. Many are of remarkable beauty in color and grain, taking a high polish and undergoing the heaviest strains or severest wear without susceptible damage. The narra or Philippine mahogany is a beautiful wood which grows to very great size. The banaba is hard, tough, and of a beautiful rose-pink color. There are many ebony trees of fine quality. The lanotan is often called ivory wood on account of the remarkable resemblance it bears to ivory. ENORMOUS WEALTH IN A dozen others might be named, each with special qualities which give it great value and each found in quantity sufficient to justify dealing in it as a business enterprise. Under the Spanish regime the immense natural wealth in timber has not brought one-tenth of the income to the colony which it would under better conditions of trade. Yet notwithstanding red tape and costly governmental interference, the profit is so large that a steady trade is done by Manila and Iloilo with other parts of the world. THE FORESTS. CHAPTER XVI. MINERAL WEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES. Motives Which Stimulated the Era of Exploration and Discovery of the Early Voyagers-Spanish Discouragement of Mining Operations in the Philippine Islands-Native Methods of Obtaining Gold-Gold Bearing Districts of the Philippine Archipelago-Work of the British Mineral Syndicate-Silver and Galena-Coal and Lignite-Copper, Quicksilver, Platinum and Tin-Iron Mining and the Experience of an Iron Miner-A New Petroleum Field-Minor Mineral Products-Opposition of the Catholic Church in the Philippines to the Mining Industries-The Influence of Gold Discoveries upon the Development of Remote Regions. Τ' HREE objects of search stimulated the energy and the cupidity of those monarchs of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries who fostered the exploration of remote lands and seas. They wished to discover new races which might be converted to Christianity for their own glory and the aggrandizement of the Church; they sought the islands which would produce rich spices and silks in order to pour the treasures of the Orient into their own coffers and their own kingdoms; furthermore, they wanted to find gold and other precious metals which tradition always locates in the least known and least accessible countries. Less attention, however, has been given by Spanish explorers to the mineral wealth of the Philippine islands than to any other phase of their natural riches. The Spanish government throughout almost the entire period of its possession, has not only refused to examine and develop its own resources, but has actually discouraged every one else who has attempted to do what it declines to do itself. Gold has long been known to exist in the Philippines, and was mined by the natives long before the Spanish discovered them. They say that the yellow metal has been extracted from the rocks and the soil from time immemorial, and they still continue to dig it in a hap hazard way, using the rudest and most wasteful methods. They know nothing of amalgamation, nor do they understand the value of pyritic ores. They have neither powder nor dynamite, and work only rich quartz and alluvial deposits. For the latter they use washboards and flat wooden moulds, losing all the float-gold. The gold-bearing quartz is crushed by hand or ground between heavy stones turned by buffaloes and is then washed. The shafts are bailed by lines of workmen who pass small water-buckets from man to man. Even by these primitive methods, they obtain the precious metal in considerable quantities. CRUDE MINING The gold of the Philippines was better known in the past than it is to-day. The Chinese books refer to the archipelago as a land of gold and many precious ores, and as a matter of fact one can learn more about the mineral resources of the country in Hong Kong than in Manila. As early as 1572 there were mines in North Camarines, which lies to the southeast of Luzon, and in the same century the natives practiced quartz mining in northern Luzon. In 1620 an army officer found out that some half-caste Chinese were extracting large quantities of gold from mines in the provinces of Ilocos and Pangasinan, in northern Luzon. The Chinese were attacked and killed, but the victorious soldiers never found the mines. Within recent years gold deposits were found on the east coast of Mindanao, and the captain of a steamer trading in that neighborhood reported that the output of the washings was at least ten pounds a day and that nearly all of it went to Chinese traders. Even in Manila province the natives washed the sand in the river near Montalban and obtained enough gold dust to pay them for their trouble. The Sulu warriors bring both gold dust and nuggets to Borneo, and claim that there is an inexhaustible supply on their island and Basilan. Valuable deposits of gold have been found in several other islands of the group. There are old alluvial workings in Cebu, and Mindanao has rich gold-bearing quartz in addition to its placer mines. On Panaon there is known to be at least one vein of gold-bearing quartz. The name of Mindoro is said to be derived from mina de oro (gold mine), |