252 AUSTRALASIA. 



60 miles from its mouth. Another stream, also known as the Rio Grande, is said 

 to rise in Lake Magindanao, in the centre of the island, flowing thence south-west 

 and north-east to Illana Bay in the Celebes Sea. 



Climate, Flora, Fauna of the Philippines. 



The climate of the Philippines is essentially maritime and tropical ; in other 

 words, the temperature, normally very high, oscillates within very narrow limits. 

 Thus the heat, varying little from month to month, is useless to distinguish season 

 from season, and the year, as in Indonesia, is divided rather by the alternating 

 wet and dry monsoons.* The polar current from the north-east prevails from 

 October to April, the moist south-west monsoon for the rest of the year. The 

 change of the trade winds is always dreaded, being often attended by sudden 

 baguios or typhoons, which rise in the Pacific, and sweep across the archipelago to 

 the north of Mindanao, wrecking vessels by the dozen, demolishing villages, 

 destroying thousands of lives, and spreading ruin far and wide. The typhoon 

 that struck Manilla in 1882, the most terrific on record, travelled at the prodigious 

 velocity of 140 miles per hour. At present a submarine cable communicating 

 with Hong-Kong signals the approach of these storms, thereby greatly diminishing 

 their disastrous effects. 



Lying between Indonesia and Formosa, the Philippines present in their fiora 

 and fauna a natural transition between these two regions ; nevertheless they also 

 possess a number of characteristic species, which in some cases are even confined 

 to a single island. Mindanao, the least-known region of the archipelago, appears 

 to be also the richest in special vegetable forms The sixty species of large trees 

 in its forests, yielding valuable timbers for ship-building, cabinet-work or carving, 

 include a myrtacea [Xanthostemiim venlngonianum) , an almost incorruptible wood 

 whose range extends to Australia. The halefe, or banyan, is very common through- 

 out the archipelago, where it often attains enormous dimensions. Palms also are 

 numerous, while the cinnamon, clove, and pepper grow wild in the southern forests. 

 The tea plant has been discovered in Luzon, and is now cultivated in the botanic 

 gardens with good results. In 1882 botanists had already recognised 1,163 

 genera and 4,583 species of plants in the archijjelago. 



No carnivorous animals occur except the ngiao, a species of wild cat, although 

 the natives speak of a tiger or leopard in Paragua. Amongst the other mammals 

 are the wild boar, dangerous in some districts, two species of antelope, several 

 varieties of the deer famil}^ the Macacua ct/iiomolgm and other apes. Birds are 

 very numerous, and the gallinaceae especially are represented by some superb 

 forms, such as the lahuyo and huUcsigay. The neighbouring seas abound in animal 

 organisms of all kinds, and some of the rivers team with fish. Amongst these 

 is the cvirious dalag, or snake-head (Ophiocephahts), furnished with water-pouches 

 on either side of the head, which enable it to remain long out of its natural 



* Mean annual temperature of ilanilla from 1870 to 1880 82"= F. ; highest (September), 97°; lowest 

 (February), •'>9° ; rainfall about 100 inches. 



