28 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
Philippine—a theory which, as will presently he seen, is 
more or less borne out by what we know of the zoology 
of the island. To the west of the Philippine Archipelago 
is another deep basin separating it from Annam and 
Cochin China. Along its eastern boundaries, throughout 
their whole extent, the great ocean depths are soon 
reached; but to the north a submarine bank connects 
Luzon with Formosa by way of the Bashi and Babuyan 
islands, although here also, as in the Mindoro and Sibutu 
Straits, we find a narrow but rather deep channel inter¬ 
vening close to Formosa. 
According to Spanish authors, the Philippines amount 
to 408 islands, exclusive of mere rocks and uninhabited 
islets. Two islands are pre-eminently large—Luzon, 
which is larger than Ireland by a half, and Mindanao, 
which exceeds it by a fifth. Seven others are of con¬ 
siderable size — Samar, Leyte, Zebu, Negros, Panay, 
Mindoro, and Palawan—the largest of these, Palawan, 
Samar, and Panay, being each about half as large as 
Sicily, and the smallest, Zebu, about one-fifth the size of 
that island. Then come two, Bohol and Masbate, about 
as large as Majorca; after which are about twenty 
islands, such as the Calamianes, Marinduque, Basilan, 
and Catanduanes, all of which are larger than the Isle of 
Wight. The entire archipelago is said to contain an 
area of about 200,000 geographical square miles, but 
this must include the landlocked water-surface between 
the islands. The actual land area of all the islands, in¬ 
cluding Palawan, Balabac, and the Sulu group, is 113,400 
square miles, of which Luzon furnishes nearly half, with 
an area of 47,600 square miles. 
Whether considered collectively or individually, the 
Philippines have their long axis, for the most part, north 
and south, and—if we disregard the southern groups—* 
