FOREST AND STREAM. 
[JAN. 27, 1906. 


place; Cotopaxi figuring second. Orizaba has 
been found by my friend Dr. Kaska to be 100 
metres higher than Popocatepetl. The heights 
of these volcanos are as follows: 
Chimborazo, in Ecuador, according to Hum- 
boldt, 21,730 feet; Cotopaxi, in Ecuador, accord- 
ing to Humboldt, 19,000 feet; Popocatepetl, in 
Mexico, according to Humboldt, 17,830 feet; 
Orizaba, in Mexico, according to Dr. Kaska, 
18,158 feet. Dr, W. H. Ketter. 
City or Mexico. 

A Lieutenant in the Philippines. 
AT a recent social gathering in Brooklyn 
Lieut. Williams, U. S. A., gave informally a 
very interesting talk on his experience in the 
Philippines. His regiment was at Ft. Niagara, 
when suddenly ordered to San Francisco. A 
short time there brought the order to embark 
for Manila on Thanksgiving Day. “No man 
had Thanksgiving dinner that day.” A short stop 
for coal at Honolulu gave the Lieutenant op- 
portunity to see that “paradise of the Pacific.” 
“Tt is the finest place I ever saw,” he said, 
“and I advise you all to see it if possible.” 
A surprise awaited them at Manila Bay. In- 
stead of a narrow, difficult entrance to the 
harbor, as many supposed, they found two 
channels—one of them a half mile wide, the 
other about twelve miles wide. The bay itself 
is about thirty-five miles wide, affording ample 
room for naval maneuvers or fighting. This 
also is different from the popular idea about it. 
The first night’s experience on the northern 
line of defense afforded considerable amuse- 
ment. Many of the men had never seen active 
service before, and to their vivid imagination 
every waving bush was or concealed a hostile 
Filipino. Accordingly, the Krag-Jorgensen 
rifles of the sentinels were talking nearly all 
night, and about 5,000 cartridges were wasted. 
Experience soon improved the situation in that 
regard, and the finish was given by the official 
announcement that any sentinel firing a shot and 
unable to show a dead Filipino for it would have 
to march laden up and down the company 
street a given number of hours. This was 
effective. 
POPOCATEPETL CRATER AND SUMMIT. 
The first long march the regiment made was 
on a day when the thermometer marked 115°. 
Had the humidity been like that of New York, 
the men could not have endured it. As it was, 
no one was overcome. The clothing that day 
consisted of a hat, blue flannel shirt, Khaki 
pants, leggings, shoes and stockings. Reaching 
a small stream, the men laid down their rifles, 
took off their canteens and haversacks. and 
literally rolled into the water with their clothes 
on. Said the Lieutenant: ‘I did it myself, and 
allowed the men to do it.” Then after filling 
the canteens the march was resumed. 
There are two seasons in that country—the 
wet and the dry—each about six months. Much 
of the marching and fighting was done in the 
wet season, and in the extensive rice-paddy 
fields. The product of these fields is the main 
diet of the natives, and the cultivation makes 
these fields extremely difficult for marching. 
‘They are cut up into alternate trenches and, 
embankments—the latter about two feet high 
and cone foot wide. During the rainy season 
water covers the whole, and does not disappear 
until two or three months after the rain ceases. 
The first few men marching over one of those 
little banks have comparatively good walking, 
but all the rest have a hard time. 
The Lieutenant said he had often marched 
nearly all day in water breast-deep and the soft, 
filthy mud more than knee-deep. Sometimes 
after such an experience they would come to a 
stream and halt to take off and wash their 
clothes, remove the mud caked on their persons, 
and then, donning their wet uniforms, continue 
the march. He had seen men in those rice- 
paddy fields run their rifles down into the mud 
muzzle end first about the whole length and 
lean on the stock to keep themselves from 
sinking. Remembering how careful the soldier 
is of his rifle, this illustrates his extremity. 
The natives preferred to fight from ambush, 
and a death-dealing shot was liable to come 
from a tree at any time. Once a captain who 
had just reached the Philippines with his com- 
pany of fifty-eight men attacked a native forti- 
fied position. In a short time the captain, one 
lieutenant and twenty-four men were killed out- 
right, the other lieutenant and twenty-two men 
were severely wounded, and only twelve men 
out of the fifty-eight were left to continue the. 
fight. Lieutenant W. with his company was 
sent to their relief. The lieutenant who was 
killed had graduated from West Point only 
three months before. 
Another incident was on this wise. Lieuten- 
ant W. was leading his men up a long and 
difficult hillside. Having ordered a few minutes’ 
halt for rest, he was sitting on a rock a little 
in advance when a sergeant came up and asked: 
to speak with his lieutenant. Permission 
granted, the sergeant said, “This is a queer way 
of becoming a man, isn’t it?” 
The Lieutenant thought the man’s mind was 
becoming unbalanced through the tropical heat 
and spoke sharply to him, But, explaining 
himself, the sergeant said, “This is my birthday. 
I am 21 years old to-day, and I thought I would 
like to tell the lieutenant about it.” After a 
little sympathetic talk from his officer, the 
sergeant returned to his place and the com- 
mand moved on up the hill. At the top they were 
met by a volley, and the sergeant was killed. 
Lieutenant Williams said that one reason why 
it took the army so long to put down the in- 
surrection was because they could not tell who 
were enemies and who were friends. They 
would go out of town some day and have a 
fight with hostile natives. At night they would 
meet those same natives on the streets of the 
town and be unable to recognize them. The 
natives would get back into town first and 
change their clothing—hence the difficulty. 
Often the Lieutenant would, without knowing 
it, talk with men at night against whom he had 
been fighting that day. 
Among the hills of Luzon deer are fairly 
plentiful, but they are small, about like our 
Carolina deer, and there is little pleasure in 
hunting these, for the meat spoils so quickly. 
It must always be cooked at once. It will spoil 
in twenty-four hours and so is never carried 
to camp. This is hardly like Adirondack deer 
hunting, of which the Lieutenant also knows 
something by experience. 
His entertaining and instructive talk was 
given at an Adirondack reunion and was 
heartily appreciated. * JUVENAL. 
