A Revelation of the Filipinos 



!45 



lakes and marshes, waterfalls, and ele- 

 vated beach lines, showing that the 

 whole archipelago is in a condition of 

 unrest. 



THE COASTLINE IS GREATER THAN 

 THAT OF THE UNITED STATES 



The coasts of the archipelago are for the 

 most part intricate ; how intricate may 

 be realized from the statement that these 

 islands, with an area of about 115,000 

 square miles, have a coast line more 

 than double the length of that of the 

 main body of the United States. They 

 are in part the result of volcanic action 

 and in part the work of coral animals. 

 Vulcanism has brought up the land from 

 great depths in the form of thousands of 

 large and small islands, fringed with 

 coral reefs, some of which have been 

 brought to the surface, while others lie 

 immediately below it. 



With such a broken coast, harbors of 

 one sort or another are numerous . Most 

 of them are of sufficient depth to admit 

 large vessels, but are so difficult and 

 dangerous of entrance, owing to the 

 reefs which obstruct them and to the ab- 

 sence of lights, channel buoys, range 

 stakes, and accurate charts, as to be of 

 little value except to those who know 

 them well. Owing to the alternating 

 character of the winds which prevail 

 throughout most of the archipelago, the 

 northeast trade wind from October to 

 June and the southwest wind during the 

 rest of the year, many, if not most, of 

 the harbors furnish shelter during only 

 a part of the year. 



All the principal islands and groups of 

 islands have harbors for the largest ves- 

 sels in all kinds of weather at all seasons, 

 except the island of Bohol, which has 

 no harbors, and there are many har- 

 bors which are safe only according to the 

 season of the year. 



THE EQUATORIAL CURRENT, TIDES, 

 AND RIVERS 



The dominating feature of the cur- 

 rents in the islands is the great equa- 



torial current, which, sweeping across 

 the Pacific from east to west in a broad 

 belt, divides east of these islands. The 

 northern portion, which farther north is 

 known as the Japan current, sends nu- 

 merous streams through the passages 

 among the islands, thus forming a com- 

 plicated system of currents almost im- 

 possible of description. The system is 

 still further complicated by surface 

 drifts, set in motion by the southwest 

 wind in the summer and fall, making 

 currents in various directions among the 

 islands at different times of the year. 



Tides in the archipelago are exceed- 

 ingly irregular, differing greatly in dif- 

 ferent places, owing to the directions in 

 which tidal waves move, and differing 

 also greatly at different times of the 

 month. For details regarding them ref- 

 erence should be made to the sailing di- 

 rections prepared by the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey. 



There are few rivers in the Philippine 

 Islands, the Cagayan of northern Luzon, 

 the Rio Grande de Mindanao, and the 

 Augusan of Mindanao being the only 

 three which can be classed as large 

 streams. These, which are in approx- 

 imately the same class, have a length ex- 

 ceeding 200 miles, and owing to the 

 abundance of precipitation carry large 

 volumes of water even during the low 

 stage. The Pampanga River of central 

 Luzon is nearly as large, and this is fol- 

 lowed in magnitude by the Ango of cen- 

 tral Luzon and the Arbra in the northern 

 part of the same island. Probably there 

 are no other streams in the islands which 

 exceed iod miles in length. 



3,141 ISLANDS 



Mr G. R. Putnam, in charge of the 

 United States Coast and Geodetic Sur- 

 vey in the Philippine Islands, at the in- 

 stance of the Director of the Census, 

 made a count and measurement of all 

 the islands and islets comprised in this 

 archipelago, including everything, how- 

 ever small, which at high tide appeared 

 as a separate island. The total number 



1. 



