ter. I know of no other part of the world,
the Alaskan Treadwell mines alone excepted, where pay ore is found
within a few hundred yards of the anchorage of sea-going vessels." In
addition to gold, iron, copper, lead, sulphur, and other minerals are
found, and are believed to exist in paying quantities. The numerous
mineral springs attest their presence in almost every part of the
principal islands.

[Illustration: DRYING SUGAR.

Large pans containing the sugar are set in the sun to evaporate the
moisture. No refining or clarifying machinery has been introduced into
the Philippine Islands.]

FORESTS AND TIMBER.

The forest products of the islands are perhaps of greater value than
their mineral resources. Timber not only exists in almost exhaustless
quantity, but--considering the whole group, which extends nearly a
thousand miles from north to south--in unprecedented diversity,
embracing sixty varieties of the most valuable woods, several of which
are so hard that they cannot be cut with ordinary saws, some so heavy
that they sink in water, and two or three so durable as to afford ground
for the claim that they outlast iron and steel when placed in the
ground or under water. Several of these woods are unknown elsewhere,
and, altogether, they are admirably suited for various decorative
purposes and for the manufacture of fine implements and furniture.

[Illustration: THE STRANGE WAGONS OF ALBAY.

The eighty-odd different tribes who inhabit the Philippines have varying
dialects, manners, and customs. The peculiar house-roofed wagons, shown
in the above illustration, are found in only one locality.]

Here also are pepper, cinnamon, wax, and gums of various sorts, cloves,
tea, and vanilla, while all tropical fruits, such as cocoanuts, bananas,
lemons, limes, oranges of several varieties, pineapples, citrons,
bread-fruits, custard apples, pawpaws, and mangroves nourish, and most
of them grow wild, though, of course, they are not equal to the
cultivated fruit. There are fifty-odd varieties of the banana in the
archipelago, from the midget, which makes but a single mouthful, to the
huge fruit eighteen inches long. There seems to be no limit to which
tropical fruits and farm products can be cultivated.

The animal and bird life of the Philippines offer a field of interesting
research to naturalists. There are no important carnivorous animals. A
small wild-cat and two species of civet-cats constitute about all that
be