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In the city a copra mill may be easily located by the rank 

 pungent odor. They are all crudely built shacks, situated by 

 preference on a hillside. Inside the mill, the operator sits on a 

 tool shaped something like a child's hobby horse, but armed 

 with a sharp spike for the head. After the nut is removed 

 from the husk, it is split open and the kernel removed upon this 

 spike with astonishing deftness. The husk is used for coconut 

 fiber, and the shell for fuel. Under the mill is a stone-walled 

 pit, and the floor above it is covered with strips of bamboo. 

 On this the kernels are spread, the fire of shells built in the pit 

 below, and the smoke and heat dry the kernels into copra. A 

 great deal of this is exported directly, but in some mills there 

 are also primitive oil presses. These consist of a large split 

 log and a trough beneath. Copra is placed between these logs, 

 pressure is applied by huge hand screws, and the oil drips out 

 into the trough. 



Along the city street, one sees everywhere piles of coconuts, 

 of husks, of shells for fuel, of seedlings waiting to be transplanted. 

 Coconut trunks are used for building, and the poorer houses 

 have their sides and roof of coconut thatch. Even the pre- 

 vailing street game of the children, something like hop-scotch, 

 is played with a coconut shell. 



The trip from Pagsanjan to the gorge is made by the native 

 bancas up the river. For a considerable distance its exceedingly 

 rapid current is confined within vertical walls several hundred 

 feet high, and at the upper end of the gorge are some very pictur- 

 esque falls. The sides of this gorge are clothed with a dense 

 mat of climbers, epiphytes, and rock plants. Fig trees attach 

 themselves as epiphytes on the cliff, and send their roots down 

 to the water's edge. Other epiphytes attach themselves to the 

 figs. Palms and tree ferns establish themselves in the tangle. 

 Aroids grow in vertical strips under the smaller falls, where they 

 are constantly drenched by the spray. Thickets of a willow-like 

 Eugenia grow on the gravel bars near the river. All combine 

 to present a most varied and interesting display of tropical 

 vegetation, whose quiet colors and motionless foliage are in 

 sharp contrast to the turbulent waters of the stream. 



