36 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKATEL 



deluges of water over the surrounding country, the roada 

 become utterly impassable, and the marshes are turned 

 into lakes in which the unfortunate traveller finds his 

 navigation impeded by the tree-tops. Such is the normal 

 condition of things on the eastern seaboard when the 

 north-east monsoon is blowing with its full strength. 

 At this period the heavy sea running is such as to pre- 

 clude safe navigation, and the fisherman becomes perforce 

 an agriculturist, while upon the other side of the archi- 

 pelago there is settled fine weather both on sea and 

 land. The agricultural seasons thus vary with the 

 locality, and when it is seed-time upon one slope of the 

 Sierra the harvest is being gathered upon the other — a 

 peculiarity which has been described by Jagor and some 

 of the older writers. In the Sulu group there are two 

 rainy seasons, occurring at the change of tlie monsoons, 

 of which that commencing with the onset of the easterly 

 monsoon is by far the heavier. Owing to the conformation 

 of the land and the position of the ranges, the rainfall in 

 the Philippines is subject to great local variation. The 

 Davao Gulf in Mindanao, for example, has its dry season 

 during the IST.E. monsoon, when the rain is falling in 

 daily torrents on the east coast of the island. The 

 annual rainfall of Manila is about 99 inches, of the 

 Agusan Valley in Mindanao 156 inches, and of many 

 parts of Luzon considerably more. 



Excepting in the southern islands — the Sulu group, 

 Mindanao, and part of Palawan, which are too near the 

 equator to suffer — the Philippines are subject to the 

 most terrific typhoons, which occur almost invariably at 

 the change of the monsoons, and especially in October, 

 a month dreaded by the navigator of the China Sea. 

 Originating in the Pacific, and progressing along a curved 

 path in a more or less westerly direction, these hurricanes 



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