X, A, 3 Smith: Reconnaissance of Mountain Province 195 



small theater and is said to have passages several kilometers in 

 length. I made no extensive exploration of these, as I felt that 

 this was purely a side issue, having no fundamental bearing on 

 the more general field studies then in hand. Cave exploration 

 in this region would probably not yield any paleontological results 

 as the amount of water carried through these passages at certain 

 seasons would undoubtedly remove any such remains. 



In another way their exploration is of practical value. For 

 instance, near Baguio just the same sort of cavernous limestone, 

 in places concealed by the tuff and talus, has been responsible 

 for some very serious slides along the Benguet road. And, also, 

 at Sagada I think the limestone must be held responsible for 

 some rather extensive landslides. 



In traversing the hills about Sagada (just south of the 

 mission), I found a conglomerate of apparently purely local de- 

 velopment above the limestone. It consists of a sandy and 

 reddish matrix with limestone pebbles in it. This conglomerate 

 is not to be correlated with the "Agno beds," which are far 

 below both topographically and stratigraphically. 



Marl. — Von Drasche has already called attention to the marly 

 layers intercalated in the upper limestone near Sagada. These 

 can be seen in several places in the road south of the Mission, 

 but they are only thin layers and are not of any economic im- 

 portance. The marl is buff-colored. 



Tuff. — As would be expected in a region of formerly great 

 vulcanism, tuff beds are a dominant feature of the sedimentaries. 

 At Sagada, where Father Staunton, of the Sagada Mission, has 

 opened a quarry to secure material for his new church, is per- 

 haps the best section of the tuff beds to be seen anywhere in the 

 province. The face of the quarry is about 15 meters high and 

 reveals the following beds : 



1. Soil and loose material. 



2. Tuff in heavy beds, 1.5 to 3 meters. 



3. Yellow-stained shale, 0.5 meter. 



4. Tuff in solid bed with varying texture, 18 meters. 



5. Bluish black shaly-looking rock which is very fine-grained, 1 meter. 



In this section the strata appear to be nearly horizontal, as the 

 face is approximately along the strike. The dip is about 20° 

 to the southeast. In the shaly portions are great numbers of 



leaf impressions, some fine specimens of which I secured through 

 the assistance of Mr. McBrust, the engineer of the Sagada 

 Mission. These leaf impressions are so perfect and so much 

 like some of the living lov/land plants that I submitted them to 



