GOLD IN THE PHILIPPINES 465 



alike enthusiastic over tlie opportunities offered by this region for 

 field-work in geology. While they returned to their various spheres 

 of duty enriched with material for use in their future class-work, they 

 all carried home with them that lasting benefit and stimulus which 

 are derived from contact with the keen minds of those working along 

 similar lines of research under more or less varying conditions. 



The courtesy of the Union Pacific flailroad Company will long be 

 remembered by every member of the expedition. In many cases it 

 made attendance possible where otherwise the expense of a long rail- 

 road journey would have been a difficulty that could not have been 

 overcome. It is to be hoped that other railroad companies will fol- 

 low the example set by the Union Pacific and take some suitable 

 opportunity of furthering the interests of science by facilitating re- 

 search in some region of geographic and geological interest. 



GOLD IN THE PHILIPPINES 



By F. F. HiLDER, 



Bureau of American Ethnology 



In an article which I wrote for the National Geocikaphic jNIaga- 

 ziNE in 1898 * I referred to the existence of gold in the Philippine 

 Islands in the following terms : 



"Gold has been found in several of the provinces, but eliietly in tlie more 

 mountainous and inaccessible localities, many of which are occupied by inde- 

 pendent tribes that have never submitted to Spanish rule; but that the aurif- 

 erous formations extend over a wide area in the island of Luzon is proved by 

 the fact that in the alluvial deposits of every stream on the Tacific side some 

 color of gold can be found. The islands of Mindanao and Mindoro are also 

 equally iiromising fields for prospectors of gold. In many places the natives 

 have extracted considerable quantities of gold dust by washing the alluvial 

 deposits; in others gold-bearing rock is broken by them with hammers and 

 ground in rude mills, such crude methods, of coursi', producing but i)oor results.'' 



During the present year I have again visited the Pliilii)pines, and, 

 although existing conditions were such that I could not {)crsonally 

 visit the gold-bearing districts, I was enabled to obtain considerable 

 information with respect to them from sources whicii I consider to 

 be thorougiily reliable, and have ins})ecte<l a number of samples of 



♦Niitioiuil (.tcoKriipliic Magazine, vol. ix, .\o. n, .Iiiiic, Is'.is. 



