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THE PHILIPPINES
The
January 1st, 1900, all the ports throughout Luzon were thrown open to trade. following are the ports of entry now open to foreign commerce: Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, Jolo, Zamboanga, Balabac, and Davao.
The climate of the Philippines varies little from that of other places in the same latitude. It is mildly tropical. The nights are cool and sunstrokes are unknown. The temperature records for the past twenty-seven years show an average minimum of 72.5° F. and an average maximum of 88.3° F. The recorded death rate per 1,000 whites in Manila for 1914 was 6.93. The year may be divided into three seasons, the first, cold and dry, cominences in November; the second, warm but still dry, commences in March, the greatest heat being experienced from April to the end of May; and the third, which is excessively wet, continues from June to the middle of November. During the rainy season inundations of rivers are frequent and travelling in the interior almost impossible. Long-continued droughts, however, sometimes occur, when the ground becomes parched and the crops are utterly destroyed. Husbandry also suffers from the ravages of locusts, which will sometimes almost entirely denude a whole province of herbage. The principal part of the group comes within the range of the typhoons, and terrific storms are of frequent occurrence. The islands are also the centre of great volcanic action. "The destructive ravages and changes produced by earthquakes," says Sir John Bowring, writing in 1859, "are nowhere more remarkable than in the Philippines. They have overturned mountains, they have filled up valleys, they have desolated extensive plains; they have opened passages from the sea to the interior, and from the lake into the sea. There are many traditional stories of these territorial revolutions, but of late disasters the records are trustworthy. That of 1796 was sadly calamitous. In 1824 many churches in Manila were destroyed, together with the principal bridge, the barracks, great numbers of private houses; and a chasm opened of nearly four miles in lengtli. The inhabitants all fled into the fields, and six vessels in the port were wrecked. The number of victinis was never ascertained. In 1828, during another earthquake, the vibration of the lamps was found to describe an are of four and a half feet; the huge corner stones of the principal gate of the city were displaced; the great bells were set ringing. It lasted between two to three minutes, rent the walls of several churches and other buildings, but was not accompanied by subterranean noises, as is usually the case." In 1832, 1852, 1863, 1869), and 1880 there were terrible shocks of earthquake, and, in 1891, in the Province of Pangasinan, shocks were continually repeated during a month, shaking down buildings, crushing their inmates, and creating a panic among the inhabitants.
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The local storms that come in the months of May and June, the period of the greatest heat, are at times very severe. On the 29th May, 1873, there was one of sufficient force to destroy within the walls of Manila alone forty-one dwellings. Typhoons also sweep over the islands in great fury, leaving thousands without shelter, the wind in its fury tearing down many of the native huts as well as more solid structures in brick and stone.
The Philippine Archipelago is divided into three great groups of islands called Luzon, Visayas or Bisayas, and Mindanao. Luzon includes the provinces of Albay. Ambos Camarines, Bataan, Batangas, Benguet, Bulacan, Cagayan, Cavite, Ilocos Norte. Ilocos Sur, Isabela, La Laguna, La Union, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Pampanga, Rizal, Sorsogon, Tarlac, Tayabas, Zambales, and the adjacent islands, Babuyanes_and Batanes on the North, Polillo, Allabat, Catanduanes, and Marianas on the East, Mindoro, Burias, Masbate, and Marinduque on the South, and Calamianes, Paragua, and Balabac, on the East. The second group, the Bisayas or Visayas, is made up of Cebu, Bohol, Samar, Leyte, and the island of Negros with its districts Capiz, Romblon, Iloilo, and Conception, and of the adjacent islands Sibuyan, Banton, Tablas, Luciara, Maestro de Campo, Bantayan, Dauis, and Caniote to the North and N.E,, and of the island of Fuego or Siquijor to the South. The third group, or sea of Mindanao, is divided into the dis- tricts of Zamboanga, Misamis, Suriago, New Guipuzgoa, Davao Bislig, and Basilan, with the adjacent islands Camiguin, Caburao, Dinagat Asgño, Oyarzal, and Vivero to the N.E.; Siluanga and General on the East; Buentua, Tengquil, Balanguingi, and Sulu with all the islands that make up the group of that name in the S.E. The wealth of timber in the Archipelago is incalculable, yielding resins, gums, mastich-pastes, dye-products, fine- grained ornamental woods, also heavy timber suitable for building purposes. There are also mines in abundance in Mencayan and Lepanto. In Lupac and Agbas copper is found and copper and iron pyrites in Suyne. In Paracale and North Camarines there are veins of gold worked by the natives and placer gold worked by American companies with up-to-date dredging machinery. In the rivers of Sapan, Casiguran, and New Ecija there are found gold pyrites of good quality, and in Mambulao and Camarines