i873-] Mineral Riches of the Philippines. 325 



San Ysidro, near Manila-, and Government had an esta- 

 blishment there or near it, for the manufacture of cannon 

 balls, &c, all of which have long been abandoned. It is 

 said that many years ago a private individual (or company) 

 projected works upon a large scale at this point, and 

 machinery was imported from Europe. This also failed 

 from the almost inaccessible nature of the locality, and the 

 writer was assured by a friend that when he was a young 

 man he had seen on the mountain road large pieces of iron 

 castings, shafts, &c, which had been there left in despair 

 by the owners, who found it impossible to get them to the 

 mine over mountains and barrancos entirely destitute of 

 anything in the shape of a road beyond a mere footpath. 



The history of a deposit of metallic mercury in one of the 

 southern provinces of the Island of Luzon is enveloped in a 

 certain mystery. The only intelligible account which I 

 have been able to obtain, and which reached me with a fine 

 sample of quicksilver, is this : — At a point on the sea shore 

 there is a high bank of clay, and below this clay a stratum 

 of magnetic iron sand. By making cavities in this sand the 

 pure mercury is found filtered into them, and when a pit is 

 sunk through the clay into the sand, after a few hours a 

 quantity of the perfectly pure metal is collected. No traces 

 of any ore have been found, most probably from the fact 

 that no one competent has taken the trouble to investigate 

 the matter. It was said, I know not with what truth, that 

 Government discouraged any further researches, fearing 

 that the discovery and production of mercury in the Philip- 

 pines might have a disadvantageous effect upon the mines 

 of Almaden in Spain. One of the mining engineers assured 

 me that the pure metal was found in the way described. 

 This is certainly a very singular affair, as deposits of quick- 

 silver, though occasionally occurring (as in the mines of 

 Istria), are much less common than cinnabar, from which 

 the greater part of mercury in commerce is derived. A 

 story was reported that many years ago a vessel was 

 wrecked on the coast, having a quantity of quicksilver on 

 board, but this would seem a very lame explanation. I 

 have particularly inquired whether anything resembling the 

 soft shale in which globules of mercury are visible was 

 found in this neighbourhood, but have not been able to 

 ascertain more than what I have already related. 



Coal is found in several localities in the Philippines, but 

 the only mines which have been regularly worked are on 

 the Island of Cebu — private enterprises which have cost 

 much more than they -have yielded. The great obstacle to 



vol. in. (n.s.) 2 u 



