28 COMrENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL 



Philippine — a theory which, as will presently be seen, is 

 more or less borne out by what we know of the zoology 

 of the island. To the west of the Philippine Archipelago 

 is another deep basin separating it from Annam and 

 Cochin China. Along its eastern boundaries, throughout 

 their whole extent, the great ocean depths are soon 

 reached ; but to the north a submarine bank connects 

 Luzon with Formosa by way of the Bashi and Babuyan 

 islands, although here also, as in the Mindoro and Sibutu 

 Straits, we find a narrow but rather deep channel inter- 

 vening close to Formosa. 



According to Spanish authors, the Philippines amount 

 to 408 islands, exclusive of mere rocks and uninhabited 

 islets. Two islands are pre-eminently large — Luzon, 

 which is larger than Ireland by a half, and Mindanao, 

 which exceeds it by a fifth. Seven others are of con- 

 siderable size — Samar, Leyte, Zebu, Negros, Panay, 

 Mindoro, and Palawan — the largest of these, Palawan, 

 Samar, and Panay, being each about half as large as 

 Sicily, and the smallest, Zebu, about one-fifth the size of 

 that island. Then come two, Bohol and Masbate, about 

 as large as Majorca ; after which are about twenty 

 islands, such as the Calamianes, Marinduque, Basilan, 

 and Catanduanes, all of which are larger than the Isle of 

 Wight. The entire archipelago is said to contain an 

 area of about 200,000 geographical square miles, but 

 this must include the landlocked water-surface between 

 the islands. The actual land area of all the islands, in- 

 cluding Palawan, Balabac, and the Sulu group, is 113,400 

 square miles, of which Luzon furnishes nearly half, with 

 an area of 47,600 square miles. 



Whether considered collectively or individually, the 

 Philippines have their long axis, for the most part, north 

 and south, and — if we disregard the southern groups — 



