X, A, 5 Pratt: Reconnaissance in Caramoan Peninsula 317 



COPPER 



Enrique D'Almonte's map of Luzon (1883) indicates copper 

 at two places near the eastern end of Caramoan Peninsula. 

 Jagor " states that he saw metallic copper which came from a 

 place north of Patag (Palag) Bay, in the vicinity, apparently, 

 of the mines indicated by D'Almonte. The people of Lagonoy 

 remember a Frenchman who mined for copper north of that 

 town about thirty years ago. Becker quotes Roth to the effect 

 that Caramoan Peninsula is probably composed of crystalline 

 schists, judging by the reported occurrence of copper there. 



I found no copper at the points indicated by D'Almonte, al- 

 though I was conducted to the supposed mines twice, each time 

 by a different guide. But I did find on each occasion the tar- 

 nished pyrite lenses to which I have already referred. These 

 are found not in schists in eastern Caramoan, but in calcareous 

 sandstone. They are apparently the only basis for the reported 

 copper discoveries. Jagor would not have mistaken this mineral 

 for copper, but it is very doubtful if the copper shown to him 

 came from Caramoan Peninsula. At the place north of Lagonoy, 

 where the Frenchman is supposed to have worked, similar pyrite 

 lenses abound, and in this case they really occur in schist, as Roth 

 supposed of the copper, but no copper minerals accompany them. 



The only copper I saw on Caramoan Peninsula occurs as the 

 mineral chalcopyrite in veinlets in diorite near the barrio of 

 Mapid. The deposit at this place is of no economic importance. 



MERCURY 



The presence of metallic mercury on Mount Isarog has re- 

 peatedly been affirmed by the people near that mountain and has 

 been reported to both the Spanish and American mining offices. 

 The reports are persistent, and it is beyond question that the 

 primitive people (Negritos) living on the upper slopes of Mount 

 Isarog are acquainted with the physical properties of mercury. 

 I found that they could describe it accurately, even though they 

 considered it to be a valuable medicinal charm. But I was unable 

 to find any mercury or even cinnabar myself. My guide, a 

 Negrito, assured me that it was very scarce, and recommended 

 that I would do better to come again at a more favorable time. 

 All Saints Day, he thought, would be best, and then if I were 

 very lucky and followed a certain stream from mouth to source, 

 I might find a little mercury which would shine, he said, from 



" Jagor, F., Reisen in den Philippinen. Wiedmann'sche Buchhandlung, 

 Berlin (1873), 145. 



