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a, eee we 
ORT eee, ee ne eee a eee Pe TS Ne ee 
1044 
Abella’s general scheme of subdividing the island into units has been 
adopted, but I believe I have treated the subject from a somewhat new 
point of view.* 
Miguel Legaspi, in 1565, writing from Cebu, stated: “We are at the gate and 
in the vicinity of the most fortunate countries of the world, and the most remote ; 
it is three hundred leagues or thereabouts farther than great China, Burnei, 
Java, Lauson, Samatra, Malaco, Malaca, Patan, Siam, Lequeios, Japan, and other 
rich and large provinces.” 
With prophetic insight, the great explorer realized the importance of 
the port of Cebu and planted the first European colony there. Although 
Legaspi afterwards established another settlement to the north (Manila), 
which in the intervening centuries has gone beyond the southern port, 
still Cebu is practically the controlling center of trade in the Visayas, 
and is becoming the shipping point for much of northern Mindanao. 
The fact that recently it has been made an open port brings to it many 
trading ships from Europe and the China coast which do not touch 
Manila at all. - 
The building of over a hundred miles of broad-gauge railroad, the 
possession of both coal and oil, the former in economically paying 
quantities, and probably the latter also, will greatly augment the assets 
of this island and promise a still greater prosperity to it. 
GEOLOGICAL SUMMARY. 
In studying the physiography of a district it is necessary briefly to— 
outline its geological history, and this is best initiated by a tabular state- 
ment of the stratigraphy. The following table has been adapted from 
that of Abella with whom, save in one or two particulars, I agree: 
Taste I.—Provisional tabular statement of the stratigraphy of Cebu. 
eee oe Lithology and field relations. | 
Recent Blacks Alluvial deposits and living reefs. 
Pliocene and Pleistocene_______- Coral reefs which appear to grade uninterruptedly from the 
Pliocene to the Present. 
ERE SAROCOING oot t ec cccw nn Coralline limestone and marls with Orbitoides and Vicarya 
callosa. 
Pit | Shown by discordance in dip, not by contact. 
Ll a ee a er Limestone with Nummulites? scabra? Lam, 
ON al De ee Sandstones, shales, and coal seams. 
Unconformity ____.-------------_| Basal conglomerate. 
PrO-SOraaly (1) akkasceans~—.---- Andesitic and basaltic flows later than the hypobyssal rocks. 
Pre-Tertiary ea Hypobyssal-igneous pre-Miocene felsites, diorites, and crystal- 
line schists. 
*] am making a translation of Abella’s work, entitled “Rdpida descripcion 
fisica, geolégica y minera de la Isla de Cebw’’ (archipiélago Filipino), Madrid, 
Tello, 1886, and in all probability this will be published as a document of this 
Government. 
