20, 1 Smith: Pidatan Oil Field, Cotabato, Mindanao 39 
The drilling of one well to a depth of 1,000 meters, including 
the cost of machinery set up on the ground, will cost about 
200,000 pesos. 
- A pipe line out of this field would’ require at least 2,000,000 
pesos, and then a refinery, with tanks and with transportation 
facilities, will call for another 5,000,000 pesos, at the lowest. 
It can be easily seen that the expenditures for any real opera- 
tions in this country will mount rapidly to the 10,000,000-peso 
figure. 
Labor.—Practically all labor for operations on a large scale 
in this country will have to. be brought in from the outside. The 
Moros and Manobos cannot, in the writer’s opinion, be counted 
upon either in numbers or in quality of work. The bulk of 
the labor will have to come largely from the Visayan Islands 
or from still farther north. The average wage for common 
labor in this country is from 80 centavos to 1 peso per day. All 
skilled labor and equipment will have to be brought from the 
United States, and all supplies from Manila. In landing machin- 
ery and supplies in this field there will be heavy freight, 
insurance, and lighterage charges. 
Hints to explorers—Elsewhere ? the writer will publish some 
instructions to exploring parties who intend to visit this region. 
Therefore for editorial reasons they are not incorporated in 
this article. A general word of advice is inserted here; namely, 
before leaving the United States or other foreign country such 
persons should write either to the Bureau of Insular Affairs 
in Washington, or direct to the Philippine Bureau of Science 
in Manila for full directions. Unless one has had previous 
experience in the Islands he should not for a moment presume 
to guess about these matters, because guesswork would result 
in inconveniences and might prove to be fatal. 
For the guidance of persons going into this region a few 
figures relating to costs and transportation, furnished by Cap- 
tain Gutierrez, senior inspector of Constabulary of Cotabato 
Province, are given in the appendix. 
Geological exploration.—As preliminary work in this region, 
the writer would suggest that a detailed section-be made of 
Malitabug River to the Lanao boundary, another from Malitabug 
River due east through Banisilan to Pulangui (Rio Grande or 
Cotabato) River, and a third from Malitabug River due west to 
Parang. After this work, which will require at least three 
* Manual for Scientific Travellers, Delft. (In preparation.) 
