246 AUSTEALASIA. 



the surrounding waters. But about the Gulf of Davao, in South Mindanao, the 

 contrary movement of subsidence has taken place, as shown by the dead or dying 

 forests invaded by the sea. 



The Philippines abound in minerals. The natives collect gold in the alluvia 

 of all the islands, but especially in the province of Benguet, Central Luzon, and 

 about the north-east point of Surigao, in Mindanao. Copper is common in the 

 Lepanto hills bordering on the same central district of Luzon, where from time 

 immemorial the natives have extracted the ore and wrought it into implements 

 and ornaments. The blacksmiths also have at hand an excellent iron ore for their 

 arms and instruments. Cebu is said to contain lead-glance yielding nearly half of 

 its weight in pure metal, while the solfataras of many extinct volcanoes have 

 formed inexhaustible deposits of sulphur. 



Extinct or still active craters are relatively as numerous in the Philippines as 

 in the Eastern Archipelago, and all seem disposed in regular axes coinciding with 

 those of the islands themselves. In the islet of Dumaran, at the north-east end 

 of Paragua, rise the two active cones of Alivancia and Talaraquin, and Sulu has 

 also its burning mountain, which, however, appears to have been quiescent since 

 the eruption of 1641. Sarangani, or Sangil, at the southern extremity of Min- 

 danao, hasalso been at rest since the seventeenth centviry. On the range running 

 thence northwards stands the Apo volcano, which was ascended by Montano in 

 1880, and found to be the highest in the Philippines (10,310 feet). The islet of 

 Camiguin, belonging to the same coast range, forms another igneous cone, which 

 was the scene of a violent outburst in 1871. 



West of Apo follow in the direction from south to north several cones, such as 

 Sugut (Cottabato), Macaturin, and Malindang, all probably extinct, but apparently 

 connected through the western islands with the Taal volcano in Luzon. Along this 

 line occurs the still active Malaspina or Canloon, in the northern part of Negros 

 (9,040 feet). 



The eastern coast range in Mindanao, consisting mainly of basalts, appears to 

 contain no volcano, unless the large and deep lake Mainit, near the extreme head- 

 land of Surigao, is to be regarded as an old crater. The coast range is continued 

 northwards through the island of Ley te, where the argillaceous soil, near the 

 wooded crater of an extinct cone, yields about one- fourth of pure sulphur. 



But the igneous energy of the Philippines is concentrated mainly in Luzon, 

 where the superb Bulusan volcano stands at the southernmost extremity connected 

 by a narrow isthmus Avith the peninsula of Camarines. Farther north follow the 

 craterless Poedal, and on the Gulf of Albay, the Albay, or Mayon volcano, the 

 most dreaded as well as one of the highest (9,000 feet ?) in the whole archipelago. 

 Mayon, which is of almost perfectly regular form, covers at its base a circuit of 

 over eighty square miles, its flanks are clothed with forests to a height of about 

 two thousand feet, but higher up little is visible except deposits of scoriae, which 

 are very difficult to scale. Nevertheless, both Jagor and Yon Drasche reached the 

 summit, the latter in 1876, when no trace could be detected of a crater properly 

 so called. During its frequent eruptions Mayon ejects little lava but prodigious 



