﻿THE ASCENT OF MOUNT HALCON. 199 



poles for assistance, were invariably carried down by the current and 

 were obliged to swim the last few yards in the very swift water. 

 After many delays and heavy work all the equipment was taken across 

 the river and transported to the top of the ridge between the Alag 

 and Binabay Eivers, where Camp Number Eleven was established. The 

 party made an early start on the morning of December 5 and proceeded 

 by way of the Binabay to Subaan, arriving there about 2 o'clock in the 

 afternoon. We were obliged to remain in Subaan throughout the fol- 

 lowing day and 4 o'clock on the morning of December 7 embarked for 

 Calapan on a large sailing banca, arriving at noon. On the night of 

 December 9, after forty days, the party returned to [Manila, having 

 accomplished the objects of the trip. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



No data are available regarding the rainfall in Mindoro but judging 

 solely from the vegetation in the southern part of the Island, the rainfall 

 there is much less and the dry season much more prolonged than it is in 

 the North, in the vicinity of Halcon. The presence of this high mountain 

 and its subsidiary ranges causes an enormous precipitation, extending 

 continuously over nine months of the year, from May to January, while 

 the so-called dry months, February, March and April, are not always 

 completely so, as is to be seen from the heavy rain encountered by Lieut- 

 enant Lee in April, 1904. During most of the year the mountain is 

 shrouded in fogs and is very rarely entirely free from clouds for any 

 extended period. The fact that the rivers flowing from the Halcon 

 Bange, although comparatively short, carry an enormous body of water 

 and that they are subject to great and frequent floods, as both our party 

 and Whitehead learned from experience, would indicate an abnormally 

 heavy rainfall. The vegetation of Halcon, not only that of the higher alti- 

 tudes, but of the lowlands surrounding the mountain and extending even 

 to the coast at Baco, demonstrates a high and practically uninterrupted 

 humidity throughout the year. Abundant epiphytes, ferns, orchids and 

 other plants and especially the filmy ferms, which are dependent upon a 

 high and constant humidity for their existence and are identical with, 

 or similar to the species on other mountains in the Philippines at altitudes 

 above 3,000 feet, are found in the vicinity of Halcon, sometimes at sea 

 level. In the forests along the rivers at as low an elevation as 250 feet 

 such plants are abundant and many species are represented. 



Halcon is covered with and surroimded by the most dense forests 

 excepting where the vegetation has been destroyed by the Mangyans. 

 From the limits of cultivated land along the coast, extending inward and 

 up to an altitude of 3,000 feet, the trees are of large size and would prove 

 to be of considerable commercial value for timber if the 'question of trans- 

 portation were a more simple one. Beginning at an altitude of about 



