72 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAYEL 



Ilocos, is Lavag, which claims to be the largest town in 

 the archipelago after Manila, but it is without a port and 

 is the centre of a purely agricultural district. Off the 

 extreme northern point of Luzon lie the Bashi and 

 Babuyanes groups, which are claimed by Spain. They 

 have few inhabitants, and are not subjected to the passport 

 or poll-tax. On the coast opposite the Babuyanes is 

 Aparri, the port of the province of Cagayan, whence large 

 quantities of tobacco are shipped to the capital to be made 

 into cheroots. The district is a fertile valley — the Llano de 

 Dijun — lying between the two great ranges of the Sierra 

 Madre and the western Cordillera, and drained by the 

 Piio Grande de Cagayan or Tajo, the largest river in 

 Luzon, which is navigable by small vessels for a consider- 

 able distance, and has a course of about 200 miles. The 

 inhospitable east coast affords no important towns in its 

 northern part, and scarcely a single harbour until Port 

 Lampon, opposite Manila, is reached. 



Southern Luzon, but for its abaca, would be of less 

 agricultural importance than the central parts of the 

 island, but its geographical position is superior, and the 

 San Bernardino Channel, which bounds it to the south 

 and west, permits of navigation in most weathers. Legaspi, 

 the port of shipment of the hemp, is used only in the 

 summer. When the north-east monsoon is blowing the 

 vessels lie at Sorsogon, and the produce is sent across the 

 narrow isthmus to that port. The Albay district is con- 

 spicuous for the excellence of its roads — a rare character- 

 istic of any part of Luzon — and planting has been 

 progressing with great energy and success of late years, 

 the Government selling the unreclaimed forest land at 

 from one shilling to half a crown the acre. But the 

 district is famed not only for its abaca, but for its vol- 

 canoes, and the peasant works under the shadow of the 



