270 THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



salt water, but when ripe it changes from green to bright yellow 

 and has a rich aromatic flavor. 



The mangostin, on'e of the most. delicious of all tropical fruits, 

 is grown in Mindanao and some other of the southern islands 

 of tbe group. The tree on which it grows resembles a pear tree 

 in size and shape, the reddish brown-skinned fruit is spherical 

 in form, the outer rind is thick and tough, enclosing a white 

 center, which is slightly sweet, but of most delicious and delicate 

 flavor. This fruit is confined to the Malay peninsula and east- 

 ern archipelago, and all efforts to raise it elsewhere have failed. 



Of all the native fruits, however, the banana is the most pro- 

 lific and useful to the people, giving them a larger amount of 

 nutritious food from a given area of land than any other crop, 

 with a minimum expenditure of labor. Bananas as used in 

 this country have been gathered while immature and have been 

 bruised and heated in transportation ; consequently they bear 

 but small likeness to the fruit in its tropical home. A traveler 

 who has partaken of a meal in a native dwelling in the Philip- 

 pines, consisting of rice, boiled as only the natives can cook it, 

 and ripe bananas full of delicious juice, melting in the mouth 

 like cream, with the cool and fragrant water of the cocoanut as 

 a beverage, can appreciate how much nature has done in those 

 regions to supply the wants of man and how little of human 

 labor is required to support life. 



MINERALS 



From what is known of the mineralogy of the islands, there is 

 no doubt that a scientific geological survey would prove that they 

 are rich in ore deposits of many kinds. Gold has been found in 

 several of the provinces, but chiefly in the more mountainous 

 and inaccessible localities, many of which are occupied b}^ inde- 

 pendent tribes that have never submitted to Spanish rule ; but 

 that the auriferous formations extend over a wide area on the 

 island of Luzon is proved by the fact that in the alluvial deposits 

 of every stream on the Pacific side some color of gold can be 

 found. The islands of Mindanao and Mindoro are also equally 

 promising fields for prospectors for 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 course producing but poor results. It seems 

 remarkable that with the knowledge that gold exists the Span- 



