Vol. XV, No. 3 



WASHINGTON 



March, 1904 



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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS AND THEIR 



PEOPLE 



By Henry Gannett, 



Chief Geographer, U. S. Geological Survey, and Assistant Director 



of the Philippine Census 



THE Philippine Islands are on the 

 other side of the earth, 10,000 

 miles away. Lying near the 

 equator, between 5 and 21 ° north lat- 

 itude, the sun passes over them in April 

 and May on its way north, and in July 

 and August on the return journey, while 

 in June the shadows are short and point 

 to the south. It is always summer, 

 always warm, and a minimum of cloth- 

 ing is constantly the fashion. The 

 trade wind blows steadily from the 

 northeast from November to May, and 

 the monsoon from the southwest from 

 June to October. 



The islands are numbered by thou- 

 sands, but no one knows how many 

 there are, for the known number is con- 

 stantly increasing as more accurate sur- 

 veys of the coast are made. They range 

 in si/.e from Luzon, the largest and most 

 populous, 41 ,ooosquaremilesin area, and 

 Mindanao nearly as large, down to the 

 myriads of little rocks just above the 

 water at high tide. The islands of Min- 

 doro.Samar, Leyte,Bohol,Cebu,Negros, 



Panay, Paragua, and Masbate exceed 

 1,000 square miles in area each, and 

 there are thirty-one which exceed 100 

 square miles each. 



The shores of these islands are fringed 

 with coral reefs which rise abruptly and 

 irregularly from the depths of the sea, 

 making navigation extremely difficult 

 and dangerous. The charts prepared 

 in Spanish times mainly by Spanish 

 authorities are, as a rule, incorrect and 

 often very misleading, so that it is nec- 

 essary for shipmasters to use the utmost 

 caution in approaching the coast or enter- 

 ing harbors. Our Coast Survey has 

 been at work for the past three years, 

 but although working as rapidly as 

 possible, consistent with accuracy, it has 

 as yet charted but few of the harbors. 

 The magnitude of the work may be 

 appreciated when it is understood that 

 the coast of the Philippine Islands is 

 much greater in extent than the entire 

 coast of the main body of the United 

 States, excluding Alaska, and that the 

 coasts are much more intricate than our 



