A GEOLOGIC RECONNAISSANCE OF THE ISLAND OF 



MINDANAO AND THE SULU ARCHIPELAGO. 



l._NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



By Wakeejn" D. Smith. 

 {From the Division of Mines, Bureau of Science. 



CONTENTS. 



I. Intboduction. 

 II. Peevious investigations. 



III. CtEneral geographical description. 



IV. People. 

 V. Climate. 



VI. The narrative of the expedition. 



I. introduction. 



The Mining Bureau of the Philippine Islands, and subsequently the 

 division of mines of the Bureau of Science, has now been in existence 

 approximately ten years and during this time its scientific employees 

 have visited nearly every part of Luzon and the Visayas, but up to the 

 present the large southern island of Mindanao has been neglected. The 

 reason for this is twofold; work was necessary in other and more im- 

 portant fields and only recently have conditions been such that travel 

 in the greater part of Mindanao has been possible without a regiment of 

 soldiers, although even now it is necessary in many places to take a de- 

 tachment of from three to twenty men, as the Moros are still disturliing 

 the peace in certain quarters. 



One or two localities on the coast were visited by members of the 

 Cuerpo de lugenieros de Minas during the Spanish regime and I shall 

 allude more fully to their work in the following pages. 



The existing deartli of information in regard to this island led me, 

 as chief of the division of mines of the Bureau of Science, to undei'take 

 a general reconnaissance of Mindanao and the Sulu group. Such a gen- 

 era] view is necessary for planning future systematic and more detailed 

 study. 



The following four objects were in mind in beginning this expedition : 

 (1) The rapid reconnaissance of the geology; (3) the examination of 



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