THE PHILIPPINES
1369
Cebu, and Zamboanga, but on January 1st, 1900, all the ports throughout Luzon were thrown open to trade. The following are the ports of entry now open to foreign commerce: Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, Jolo, Zamboanga, Balabac, and Davao. During 1918, 652 foreign vessels, with a net tonnage of 1,412,871 tons, entered Philippine ports and 659 foreign vessels with a net tonnage of 1,544,648 cleared from these ports.
(4
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 27 years show an average minimum of 72.5° F. and an average maximum of 88.3° F. The year may be divided into three seasons-the first, cool and dry, commences 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 often excessively wet, continues from June to October. During the rainy season inundations of rivers are frequent and travelling in the interior is at times interrupted. Long-continued droughts, however, sometimes occur, when the crops are seriously impaired. 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 violent storms are of frequent occurrence during the so-called rainy season. 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 length. The inhabitants all fled into the fields, and six vessels in the port were wrecked. The number of victims was never ascertained. In 1828, during another earthquake, the vibration of the lamps was found to describe an arc 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 and 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.
.
The Philippine Archipelago is divided into three great groups of islands designated Luzon, the Visayas, 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, Alhabat, 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 Visayas, is made up of Cebu, Bohol, Samar, Leyte, the island of Negros, Capiz, Romblon, Iloilo, and Conception, and of the adjacent islands Sibuyan, Banton, Tablas, Luciara, Maestro de Campo, Bantayan, Dauis, and Camote to the North and N.E., and of the island of Fuego or Siquijor to the South. The third group, Mindanao, is divided into the districts 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, Camarines, Masbate and Benguet there are a number of quartz gold mines, equipped with modern mills, in successful operation. Since the arrival of the Americans petroleum has been discovered and good success is reported to have attended the work of some prospectors. There are many hot springs of iron and sulphur waters, all of excellent medicinal