23 ' 5 Dickerson: Baguio Plateau 431 



guio Hospital. This region is so much altered by extensive 

 landslides in the Baguio formation that a definite decision is 

 unwarranted. 



DEVELOPMENT OF BAGUIO PLATEAU 



The abruptness with which Baguio Plateau first strikes even 

 the casual tourist is a noteworthy incident, which is punctuated 

 by the chauffeur's sudden shifting into high after a long steady 

 grind in intermediate or low gear up the tortuous, steep grade 

 of the Zigzag of the Bued River Road. (See Plate 8, fig. 1.) 

 A feeling of relief from strain on the part of the "back seat 

 drivers" is notable as well, since the chauffeur rounded many of 

 the curves with but little to spare, and visions of an overturned 

 car in the deep canon below have appeared to the timid. In 

 December the late evening air, filled with the healing odor of 

 pines, has a snap to it quite reminiscent of the temperate home- 

 land. The American takes a new lease on life and realizes that 

 he is truly not in the Tropics. The papaya, the banana, the 

 coconut palm, and the graceful festooned bamboo of the lowlands 

 and the vine-entangled, thickly foliated tropical forest of Bued 

 River Canon are no longer a part of the scene, but an open pine 

 forest with a grass carpet clothes the low, beautifully rounded 

 hills and wide, gently sloping valleys of this land, which is truly 

 a fairyland after a couple of years spent in the enervating humid 

 heat of the Philippine lowlands. Only once before has the wri- 

 ter experienced such a striking contrast, and that was when he 

 descended in three hours from a 2,040-meter (6,800-foot) ele- 

 vation, the snow-covered edge of the Colorado Plateau, to the 

 warm desert river 1,440 meters (4,800 feet) below on a day in 

 late December. Both incidents were exhilarating and impres- 

 sive, but the restfulness of Baguio Plateau imparted to the 

 individual a feeling of security not felt in the Colorado Canon, 

 where the very plants and animals were fiercely struggling for 

 existence in an arid surrounding, forbidding but grand. 



The uniqueness of Baguio Plateau appears even greater after 

 short excursions in the vicinity are taken. A walk out Bua 

 Road to the plateau edge enables the geologically trained visitor 

 to see even better the sharp contrast between the plateau and the 

 deep eroded V-shaped gorges of Gold Creek and Antamok River. 

 A further stroll to the hilltops of Pakdal thoroughly convinces 

 him that these well-rounded hills belong with the Baguio Plateau 

 and represent the uplands of this once low-lying country. 



