in my mind than a ride over the splendid road which runs entirely around the base of the mountain. A few miles from the base are the ruins of the old city of Daraga. The top of the church and convent only show above the ground to tell the story of the eruption in the early years of the last century.

Taal volcano, forty miles from Manila, rises from the center of a lake to a height of a few hundred feet. It is the most active volcano in the Archipelago. The eruption of 1873 did much damage. That of 1903 was not so bad, but in 1910 Taal eclipsed all previous records. More than a thousand people who, despite warnings, continued to live in a village at its base, lost their lives. Much damage was done to the neighboring country. The initial explosion brought half the people of Manila, forty miles away, out of their beds to see one of the most wonderful and impressive spectacles which the world has to offer.

Coral animals have aided volcanic action in building the islands. Volcanism has raised the land through the warm waters and formed thousands of islands fringed about with coral reefs.

Serious damage has often been done by earthquakes. In 1645 many churches, monasteries and public buildings in Manila were destroyed. The governor-general had to be extricated from the ruins of his palace. In 1865 Manila was again badly damaged. During certain months of the year slight quakes and tremors are so common that the people become accustomed to them and pay them little attention.

Although the islands are of volcanic origin, there are large areas of northern Luzon which are underlaid with granite, chists and the like, and several islands like Cebu and Bohol are covered with a thin layer of limestone. The elevated lakes, marshes, waterfalls and beach lines which are so common show that many changes of level have occurred within times which are, geologically speaking, recent.

The coast line is more than double that of the United States proper. The coasts are sinuous and intricate; the currents uncertain and unaccountable; the channels dangerous and tides variable. The navigator who strays from the beaten paths, un

C

less very familiar with the waters, takes serious chances of landing his craft upon some submerged coral reef. Even the most experienced navigators may go astray.

One evening when traveling from Sandakan, in British North Borneo, across the dangerous Sulu Sea to Siassi, my attention was called to a statement in the official sailing directions of the experience of an English ship, which had laid a course for two miles south of a small island, and in the morning found itself ten miles to the north of its objective point. It had been carried twelve miles sidewise as it were by the current. We laid the exact course of the English ship, making allowance for the current. The night was perfect and the sea quiet. At daylight our ship was several miles south of the island in a nest of reefs, the current having run from exactly the opposite point from which it was expected. A few months later the same navigator, going to the same island, laid a course which he considered a fair average, and struck the low island at full speed. Such are the uncertainties of navigation in the Sulu Sea. At times the currents seem to flow without law or reason as the wind blows where it listeth.

The animal life in the Archipelago resembles that of the surrounding regions, but shows nevertheless remarkable differences. There are fewer mammalia than in the neighboring islands of Borneo and Java. There are but two species of monkey, three of the carnivora, and but six of the deer tribe-the most interesting being the tiny mouse deer, which is no larger than a little rat terrier. Small rodents are very scarce, but there are not less than thirty species of bat. The great fruit bat, which is found in many of the southern islands, has a body as large as that of a good sized cat, with a spread of wings measuring as much as five feet. The carabao and timarau are the only large mammalia. The latter lives in Mindora, where it is the ambition and the terror of all hunters. The mountains and foothills abound in wild boar and deer. Monkeys are quite common, and travelers in the remote districts soon become familiar with them.1

1 In a Historia de Mindanao y Jolo (1667), by Francisca Combes, a work

Certain animals are found on certain islands and not elsewhere. Thus the timarau lives in Mindora, the porcupine in Palawan and the Calamianes Islands, and numerous other animals live within very restricted districts.

Some unpleasant animals inhabit the waters. Crocodiles are often to be seen basking in the sun along the banks of the large rivers, and furnish rare target practise from passing steamers. But they are not always in evidence. I once spent a night and part of two days in a Moro vinta traveling through marshes and rivers to reach Lake Buluan under the shadow of Mount Apo, where crocodiles were popularly supposed to feed only on ambitious hunters, but the day's hunt revealed not one crocodile. However, on the return journey through the marshes, four guns brought down from above more than five hundred fine ducks of various species.

Lizards are common and in sizes to suit all tastes. The little chirping house lizard is a sort of cricket who lives on the ceiling instead of the hearth, and earns the friendship and gratitude of his hosts by eating an astonishing quantity of flies, and other such pests. Of snakes there must be a reasonable number, although in my travels about the islands I was never so fortunate as to see even a little one. However, I was not looking for snakes. Pythons must exist because they can be seen in the museums, and many narrations of desperate encounters with them have been written. But they seem to belong generally to the prehistoric or the late Empire period, after the war had become uninteresting and while the home-land appetite for stories of adventure remained unsatiated. House snakes are also traditional, but few moderns have seen them. Formerly it is said that they were sold on the streets like parrots and canaries, for pets.2

which Blumentritt says has "always been considered one of the most valuable pearls of Philippine literature," it is said that wild elephants were then found on the islands.

2 "In view of the number of species known, it is a matter of some surprise that snakes are so seldom encountered by those whose business leads them into the forests or through the high grass; in fact the majority of people seem to believe that very few snakes exist here." E. L. Griffin, "Poisonous Snakes in the Philippines." Phil. Jour. of Sci., January, 1909, sec. B.

Insects are too numerous for the comfort of other than naturalists, but fewer than one is led to expect. The number of species is said to be great, but the amount of insect life is surprisingly small. Common house flies are comparatively few and mosquitoes, while always present, are scarcely anywhere such pests as in certain sections of the United States. In the large cities they have been almost exterminated by the modern crusade against the carriers of fever bacilli. Ants of various kinds and locusts are numerous, the former eating everything but the corrugated iron roofs of the wooden houses and the latter often desolating the fields.

Cockroaches furnish material for some hysteria among the ladies and not a little profanity from the men. They are of stupendous size according to the ordinary home standard for cockroaches. Three inches in length with an expanse of wing sufficient to suggest a bat is about the average. They are a very great nuisance, as they eat everything from boots to bookbinding.

The general features of the flora are Malayan, resembling that of Java, Borneo and the Celebes. In northern Luzon the plants resemble those of China. But the differences are such as to give the flora of the Philippines marked individuality. In 769 instances there are differences sufficient to make distinct species.

On Mount Apo in Mindanao there are birds which are said to be found nowhere else in the world. The number of species is about the same as in the United States, but birds are not so common. Of 286 species found in Luzon fifty-one do not exist on any other island. The avifauna of Samar and Leyte contain twenty-two species not found elsewhere, and seventeen are peculiar to Mindora and Palawan. Cebu, a near neighbor of Negros, on one side and Bohol on the other, contains nine species of land birds not found elsewhere. The islands contain three hundred species of land birds, more than are found in Java. Snipe, plover, pigeons, ducks and geese abound. But there are many important genera found in other Malay islands which are not found in the Philippines. Flocks of white parrots give a touch of color to the somber forests of Mindanao.

Flowers are common, although not as a rule very striking. The Philippines have been described as a land where the birds have no song and the flowers are without perfume, but this is a libel on both birds and flowers. The night air is heavy with the fragrance of the dama de noche and the flower of the famous ilang-ilang. Orchids in great variety are common. At certain seasons the entire foliage of large trees turns to flaming red, purple or violet. Long avenues in Manila are lined with the so-called fire trees which during the month of July blaze with their gorgeous foliage.

The mountains are shot with minerals, but for reasons mainly economic mining has never been very profitable. Gold has always been produced and marketed. The mountain people bring gold dust to the towns for exchange and sale. Coal is found in good quantities, but the quality is poor, as the islands are not yet old enough to produce a very good grade. The operator who' holds on to his claim until the proper geological period arrives will undoubtedly gain great wealth. There is also copper on the upper waters of the River Abra which has been crudely mined by Spaniards and natives in the past. Marble exists on the island of Romblon, but inconsiderate earthquakes have wrenched and twisted the deposits and made it difficult to find large unbroken slabs. There is also some iron, and the prospects for petroleum are said to be good.

The coast waters teem with fish, which form an important element in the food of the Filipino people. Trout and bass do well in the mountain streams, although the torrential rains are liable to wash them down into the valleys, where they perish in the warm waters. After the streams near Baguio were stocked with bass, the Igorots developed remarkable skill in catching them with their hands. The warm waters of the tropical sea are filled with curiously shaped and vividly colored fish. I have seen Moros frying goldfish for supper. I am not an ichthyologist and can not speak with authority, but venture the assertion that there is not a fish in the Naples, Honolulu or other aquaria which is not found in Philippine waters. The aquarium at Manila is