72 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
I locos, is Lavag, which claims to be the largest town in 
the archipelago after Manila, but it is without a port and 
is the centre of a purely agricultural district. Off the 
extreme northern point of Luzon lie the Bashi and 
Babuyanes groups, which are claimed by Spain. They 
have few inhabitants, and are not subjected to the passport 
or poll-tax. On the coast opposite the Babuyanes is 
Aparri, the port of the province of Cagayan, whence large 
quantities of tobacco are shipped to the capital to be made 
into cheroots. The district is a fertile valley—the Llano de 
Dijun—lying between the two great ranges of the Sierra 
Madre and the western Cordillera, and drained by the 
Rio Grande de Cagayan or Tajo, the largest river in 
Luzon, which is navigable by small vessels for a consider¬ 
able distance, and has a course of about 200 miles. The 
inhospitable east coast affords no important towns in its 
northern part, and scarcely a single harbour until Port 
Lampon, opposite Manila, is reached. 
Southern Luzon, but for its abaca, would be of less 
agricultural importance than the central parts of the 
island, but its geographical position is superior, and the 
San Bernardino Channel, which bounds it to the south 
and west, permits of navigation in most weathers. Legaspi, 
the port of shipment of the hemp, is used only in the 
summer. When the north-east monsoon is blowing the 
vessels lie at Sorsogon, and the produce is sent across the 
narrow isthmus to that port. The Albay district is con¬ 
spicuous for the excellence of its roads—a rare character¬ 
istic of any part of Luzon—and planting has been 
progressing with great energy and success of late years, 
the Government selling the unreclaimed forest land at 
from one shilling to half a crown the acre. But the 
district is famed not only for its abaca, but for its vol-. 
canoes, and the peasant works under the shadow of the 
