CHAPTER II The Philippine Archipelago Location-Number and Extent of the Islands-Configuration-Character of the Coasts-Rivers-Underground River-Mountain Streams-The RainfallLocation of Cities-Mountains and Forests-Volcanoes-Earthquakes-Coast Line Ocean Currents-Fauna and Flora—Minerals—Fish and FishingClimate. At some remote time while continents were in the making, the long eastern coast of Asia which looked out upon the Pacific Ocean was crushed, wrenched, torn and flung about by the gigantic forces of nature. After the cataclysm, when things had settled down, turbulent new seas were washing the shores of the continent and the ocean was held at bay by a line of islands which extended from the far north southward until they spread fanlike toward the continent of Australia. A far-flung line of defense had been created along the entire eastern front of Asia. But it was not all above the surface of the sea. There were depressions, and elevations, high mountains and deep channels. Ever since the upheaval, the forces of nature have been at work molding and shaping the crushed and broken mass. The islands thus formed are clustered together in well-defined groups. The northern and central have become the home of an Asiatic people who aspire to rival the Anglo-Saxons, who from their seagirt home rule over one-fifth of the earth and its people. From the southernmost point of the Japanese island of Formosa can be seen, on a clear day, the northernmost of that Philippine group of islands which extends far to the southward where they cluster about the northern shores of Borneo and the Celebes, which with Java and its satellites form yet another aggregation. The Philippine Archipelago thus lies north of the Dutch and British island of Borneo and the Dutch island of Celebes, south of the Japanese island of Formosa, and east of French Indo-China, the British colony of Hong Kong, and the southern provinces of the quondam Celestial Republic of China. It extends from five degrees north latitude to twenty-two degrees north latitude, and is thus entirely within the tropics. An isosceles triangle approximately five hundred miles on its base and a thousand miles on the sides would enclose all except the Sulu Group of coral islands, which would be left south of the base line and almost within sight of the fringes of Borneo. Within this figure there are about 3,141 islands, in sizes from the tiny islet inhabited only by strange tropical birds, to Luzon, with its millions of inhabitants and area greater than the state of Pennsylvania. The total land area of the Philippine Archipelago is 115,026 square miles, thus exceeding the combined area of the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware and being seven thousand square miles larger than Great Britain. Two of the islands combined are greater than all of New England with the states of New York and New Jersey added. Luzon in the north contains 40,969 square miles. Mindanao is reported to contain 36,292 square miles, although recent surveys suggest the possibility that it is larger than Luzon. Nine islands, Luzon, Mindanao, Samar, Negros, Cebu, Panay, Leyte, Bohol, Mindoro, and Masbate, each contains more than ten thousand square miles, or six million four hundred thousand acres. Twenty of the islands each contains between one hundred and one thousand square miles. Seventythree islands each contains between ten and one hundred square miles, 262 islands between one and ten square miles, and 2,775 islands, or seven-eighths of all, contain less than one square mile each. That is, seven-eighths of all the islands are so small that each one contains less than 640 acres of land. When the 1905 Philippine census was published 1,668 of the islands had received names, while 1,473 had not yet attained to that dignity. Three partially submerged isthmuses join the Philippine Archipelago to Borneo and Celebes. On the west the connection is between the northwest coast of Borneo and the southernmost point of the long narrow island of Palawan. The strait of Balabac which lies between Palawan and Borneo is full of reefs and islands. The central connection runs from the northern coast of Borneo through the Tawi-Tawi, Jolo and Basilan groups to the southwestern point of Mindanao near Zamboanga. Between these connections lies the Sulu Sea with an average depth of six thousand feet. Farther east, a third isthmus extends from Celebes through the Sanguil group to the southeast point of Mindanao near the gulf of Davao, thence northward in a great curve through Leyte, Samar, and southern Luzon. Between the eastern and western connections lies the deep Celebes Sea. On these submerged connections there are many coral reefs which often lie dangerously near the surface of the warm shallow waters. The Philippines face the setting sun and the shore of Asia from which they were torn. During the greater part of the year equatorial currents and trade winds pile the waters of the Pacific on the bold and inhospitable eastern coast, rendering the few harbors dangerous and useless. The western coast is broken by inlets, bays and harbors. Between the coast line and the verdure covered mountains in the hazy distance, lie long stretches of fertile level country shaded by cocoanut palm and banana trees, beneath which are many villages teeming with brown people. White convent buildings and church steeples rise above the verdure and suggest life and civilization to the voyager whose ship day after day skirts the island shores. Numerous rivers find their sources in the mountains, and after rushing through narrow gorges, meander slowly across the plains and fall sluggishly into the sea. These short streams form invaluable highways for the transportation in small boats of the produce of the country. The Cagayan River in northern Luzon, the Father Nile of the Philippines, flows into the Pacific at Apirri a and is navigable for large steamers to the upper reaches where grows most of the tobacco for which the island is famous. Sixty miles from its mouth this river is as wide as the Mississippi at St. Louis, but it is comparatively shallow and requires the constant attention of a large and expensive dredge boat. The Rio Grande de Mindanao or Cotabat, in southern and the Agusan in northern Mindanao are large rivers each more than two hundred miles in length. The Pampanga in Luzon carries much commerce. The Agno and Abra find their sources in the mountains of Benguet and wander through various and changing channels, across the plains of Pangasinan to the sea. During the dry season these rivers seem insignificant, but the engineer who is attempting to dam and confine them within their proper channels and the official who is required to find the money for such conservation proceedings never cross their dry beds without a feeling of exasperated respect for a worthy but troublesome opponent. When the torrential rains come, these modest rivers are suddenly transformed into rushing torrents. Inconceivable volumes of water come roaring, pitching and tossing down the mountain gorges, and spread wooden bridges and structural iron work all over the valleys. In such times the rivers disdain to follow their recognized and legitimate courses to the sea and treat with contempt the carefully executed engineering works designed to prevent the wearing away of banks and the destruction of villages and haciendas. They often cut new channels and occasionally leave concrete bridges standing in lonesome dignity miles from any water. They make of old highways in the rear of the towns new channels through which they thereafter for a time placidly flow while the carefully constructed and expensive docks, ripraps and warehouses face sadly out upon dry sandy wastes. The Bued River rises in the mountains near Baguio and travels about twenty miles through deep and picturesque gorges, which in places are not more than one thousand feet wide, before it reaches the plains. In that distance it falls about five thousand feet. Soon after the United States Commission took charge of Philippine affairs it was decided to build a sanatorium in the mountains in order that overheated, weary, workworn civil governors, commissioners and other public officials might find rest and health. The beautiful plateau where the Igorots had built a village which they called Baguio, which translated means typhoon, was selected. But it was five thousand feet up to Baguio, and a road had to be constructed. The place was near the head waters of the Bued River, and for reasons which neither gods nor men have been able to fathom the road was located along the river bank in the bottom of the long gorge. The first location was elsewhere. The construction was commenced at Baguio, and the work continued for several miles along the ridge on a good level grade. Then suddenly it became necessary to drop over a cliff to the valley about two thousand feet below. Apparently no one had previously observed this cliff, so the work and the route were abandoned and work commenced anew at the other end of the river. As completed the road follows the river bed until within a short distance of Baguio when it rises some two thousand feet by a series of zigzags and lands among the pine trees and cool breezes of a glorious new climate. It is one of the most picturesque mountain roads outside of Switzerland. One can hardly believe that engineers advised the construction of the Benguet road in a tropical country along the bottom of a long mountain gorge where it was absolutely certain to be seriously damaged or destroyed every rainy season. But it was commenced and in time completed, and no one in power has ever found a good opportunity or possessed sufficient moral courage to abandon it. Every rainy season has left it badly damaged, and the expenses of maintenance and repair have been so great that the road is popularly supposed to have been surfaced with gold dust. In the autumn of 1911 forty inches of water fell at Baguio in twenty-four hours. The mountains slid into the gorge. The Bued River rose sixty feet and when order had been restored the lower reaches had been scoured clean of road, concrete walls and bridges. Emerging from the gorge, the torrent met the |