36 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
deluges of water over the surrounding country, the roads 
become utterly impassable, and the marshes are turned 
into lakes in which the unfortunate traveller finds his 
navigation impeded by the tree-tops. Such is the normal 
condition of things on the eastern seaboard when the 
north-east monsoon is blowing with its full strength. 
At this period the heavy sea running is such as to pre¬ 
clude safe navigation, and the fisherman becomes perforce 
an agriculturist, while upon the other side of the archi¬ 
pelago there is settled fine weather both on sea. and 
land. The agricultural seasons thus vary with the 
locality, and when it is seed-time upon one slope of the 
Sierra the harvest is being gathered upon the other—a 
peculiarity which has been described by Jagor and some 
of the older writers. In the Sulu group there are two 
rainy seasons, occurring at the change of the monsoons, 
of which that commencing with the onset of the easterly 
monsoon is by far the heavier. Owing to the conformation 
of the land and the position of the ranges, the rainfall in 
the Philippines is subject to great local variation. The 
Davao Gulf in Mindanao, for example, has its dry season 
during the U.E. monsoon, when the rain is falling in 
daily torrents on the east coast of the island. The 
annual rainfall of Manila is about 99 inches, of the 
Agusan Valley in Mindanao 156 inches, and of many 
parts of Luzon considerably more. 
Excepting in the southern islands—the Sulu group, 
Mindanao, and part of Palawan, which are too near the 
equator to suffer—the Philippines are subject to the 
most terrific typhoons, which occur almost invariably at 
the change of the monsoons, and especially in October, 
a month dreaded by the navigator of the China Sea. 
Originating in the Pacific, and progressing along a curved 
path in a more or less westerly direction, these hurricanes 
