﻿878 SMITH. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Island of Cebu shows outcrops of coal in almost all portions of 

 its area. Abella in his "Description de Cebu" * cited as many as fifteen 

 localities scattered from one end of the island to the other, and on both 

 coasts. Some desultory mining has been carried on near Mount Uling, 

 in the barrios of Lutac, Alpaco and Guilaguila, but the most serious 

 undertakings in the colliery line were the workings at Licos and Camansi 

 in the region behind (west of) Compostela and Danao, on the east coast, 

 about 50 kilometers north of the city of Cebu. The last active work in 

 this field was done in 1895, for the insurrection broke out in 1896, and 

 since the American occupation no production has been recorded, although 

 diligent exploration and development has been resumed. 



A topographic and geologic survey of the Compostela, Danao and 

 Carmen areas was undertaken in the early part of 1906 with the intention 

 of aiding in this work. The area which is mapped comprises approxi- 

 mately 100 square kilometers (36 square miles) and is indicated by the 

 rectangular space marked on the index map. (Map I.) Messrs. Good- 

 man and Ickis executed the topography, using transit and stadia, their 

 work being tied to the Liloan light-house, the position of which has been 

 closely determined by the Coast and Geodetic Survey. I was engaged in 

 mapping the geology during the months of December, January and 

 February; in this work I was assisted during the latter portion of the 

 time by Mr. Goodman. 



The difficulties attendant upon all tropical work have made it impossible 

 to indicate as many details as we desired to. The two great obstacles to 

 geologic work in Cebu are the exceptional growth of cogon grass and 

 the very thick formation of talus. Outcrops consequently are not suf- 

 ficient in frequency to allow of accurate correlation of many of the strata. 

 If the latter were undisturbed, or even approximately so, as is the case 

 in horizontal formations, we might infer that what we found to be true 

 in one part of the field would hold in all parts, but in Cebu we have 

 found' such serious disturbance, the dips and strike of the beds changing 

 so radicalh' within only a few meters, that it Avould be extremely 

 hazardous, save in a very general way, to attempt to predict the courses 

 of these formations beneath the surface. During the progress of the 

 mapping we found ourselves very rarely able to trace boundaries on the 

 surface, but in time we came to judge of the underlying formation with 

 fair accuracy by studying the topography and the character of the vegeta- 

 tion. All who have tried to do exploratory work through cogon grass and 

 "ticbao" will agree that, even though the dense jungle of such districts 

 as Batan Island is lacking in Cebu, nevertheless for certain features of 

 the work the kind of country we have encountered in this work can be 



1 Abella y Casariego, Enrique : Rapida deseripcion f isica, geologica y minera 

 de la Isla de Cebu, Madrid (1886). 



