DFKI-SLT/copious huggingface dataset:
GEOLOGIC RECONNAISSANCE OF MINDANAO AND SULU. 481 The region around Camp Keithley owing to its altitude is much cooler than the low country and the climate is correspondingly invigorating. However, at certain times of the year, particularly in Deeeraber and January these posts are said to be very disagreeable, as they are cold and raw like the New England coast of the United States in the spring time. Typhoons are said not to occur in the latitude of Mindanao and the Sulu Islands. The evident reason for this is that the cyclonic storms, which have their origin in the Pacific are formed in a latitude much north of that of Mindanao and as they pass westward the are constantly curving to the north, partly owing to the original, clockwise movement of cyclones north of the equator and partly because of their apidroaeh to the continent of Asia. According to Father Algue, Director of the Philippine Weather Bureau, a few cyclones form in the Sulu Sea, but these attain no great importance either in frequency or in intensity. Plate XXIX of Father Algae's "Cyclones of the Far Bast" -shows the mean trajectories of cyclones which pass over or near the Archipelago. It is very interesting in that it reveals how very generally Mindanao and the Sulu group escape these destructive storms. This fact is of the first importance in view of damage which such storms might inflict on crops, particularly on hemp which grows to heights varying from 10 to 18 feet, and because of the relative imnnmity from danger to vessels, such as interisland trading ships, Moro vines and pearling boats. VI. NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. Zamboanga, the first point visited by me, is situated about 3 miles from the nearest foothills at the edge of a flat plain of considerable area at the foot of the long, narrow peninsula of the same name. (See map, Plate I) To the east is a long stretch of salt-water marsh and in its rear is a scarcely less elevated tract which is taken up with paddy fields. If tlie Tumaga River lia kept its initial direction, it would cut through the heart of the city, as it is, it curves to the east and enters the sea opposite Sakol Island. The substructure of this plain is coral, the superstructure, silt and coarse detrital material from the hills to the north. Zamboanga is essentially a "gate city" and a study of the map will show its central, commanding position with reference to steamship routes. In fact this is the main feature controlling its location. It is not situated on a large river by which communication can be maintained with the interior and for this reason its position is not favorable as is that of Manila, which is on a plain on the coast and at the same time on the banks of a large stream which taps a great stretch of the interior. Cotabato, on the Rio Grande de Mindanao, is also floral)y located and it will probably expand when the immense possibilities of the country to which it holds the key are understood. Algal, Jose: The Cyclones of the Far East, Bureau of Public Printing, Manila, 1904.
482 SMITH. The initial reconnaissance which I undertook was to Boston, some 10 or 12 kilometers northeast of Zamboanga. Here the transportation by wagon Avas left and a trail taken which led up an abrupt hill a little beyond which point we entered the forest. Between Boston and this hill I found some float limestone with fragments of Orhitoides, which probably are identical with the material Eichthofen encountered so many years before. This is practically all he contributed to the geology of this region, but this is not surprising when the attitude of the natives at that time is considered. We continued in the forest for about three days, obtaining absolutely no view of the country farther than 50 yards from the trail, until we reached a log cabin about 30 miles north of Zamboanga on the Tumaga Elver" The country rock in this region is a much decomposed schist, with a considerable thickness of stiff, yellow, clay overburden. (Plate III) Quartz pebbles and bowlders are plentiful in the clay; the pebbles come from quartz stringers in the schist. The large bowlders clearly indicate large veins, but we were not so fortunate as to encounter any of the latter. The clay contains a small amount of gold which the prospectors had recovered by sluicing. Pew people were encountered in this forest. On our return aftejthree days' stay we followed the river for perhaps 25 kilometers. At times we came upon box cations (some of which we might have swum through), but usually we took the high trail which went along the steep side of the cliff, at times 30 meters above the water and rocks. The way was extremely difficult; the sharp river rocks, the sharp-edged schists and the leeches began to tell on our carriers, so that we finally took a trail which led out of the river and after a climb up the side of the gorge we regained the old path which we followed to a hemp plantation at the edge of the timber and by mid-day arrived in Zamboanga. VICINITY OF SAN RAMON. My next reconnaissance was in the vicinity of the San Ramon Farm, controlled by the Moro Province. This excursion was for the purpose of an examination of the mountains which rise abruptly back of the narrow coastal plain. The formation in this place is entirely volcanic, the rich, disintegrated debris spreading out upon the coastal plain and producing a very fertile soil. Some of the rock is highly pyritized and may carry more or less gold. In the streams I saw bowlders of andesite which sometimes contained large fragments of schist, torn off and caught up in the molten rock as it " Richthofen, F. von: Vorkommen der Nummulitenformation in den Philippinen, Ztschr. d. deutsch. geol. Ges. (1862), 14, 357. "A sketch map of the trail was made, but it shows little beyond the path.
484SMITH. THE SULU ARCHIPELAGO. The Sulu Archipelago is practically unknovii from a geologic and physiographic point of view, so that the information gained in this expedition, although meager, is at least new. Dr. Becker refers in four lines of this report to rocks on Marongas Island just across from the town of Jolo. Other than this there are no geological notes. Some eruptions of the year 1614 are described by the resident Jesuits but only in a crude way. It has been known for a long time from the reports of ship captains and travelers that the archipelago is largely volcanic. This great group of islands extends for 335 kilometers southwest of Zamboanga. It is about 120 kilometers wide and contains hundreds of islands and rocky shoals. The most considerable of the islands are Basilan, Sulu, Siasi, and Tawi-tawi and although Basilan is the largest, Sulu is of far greater commercial and historic interest. The water is nowhere of great depth within the confines of this archipelago, but it is separated both from Borneo and Mindanao by deep straits. To reconstruct a large island out of this swarm of small ones which may or may not have formed a continuous bridge from Borneo to Zamboanga, and which would since have been disrupted and partly submerged, is not a great tax upon the imagination. The evidence we have points in this direction. The Sulu group, like so many other oceanic islands, is either of volcanic or coral formation. I saw very little sedimentary material on any of the islands and where any such was exposed, it was usually at a point where erosion had removed the lava capping. I do not know of any marked volcanic activity in the Sulu Archipelago at the present time, although hot springs in old craters are reported on Cagayan Sulu. I have also been informed that there are hot springs and solfataras at Siit Lake on Sulu. This lake occupies an old crater. I have visited neither of these places. An eruption at a point near Jolo, not named, is reported to have occurred on January 4, 164-1 As there is some confusion of names in this report I do not attach much importance to the account. As far as I can learn, no accurate scientific notes were taken at the time. The only remaining reference I find regarding the geography or geology of the Sulu Archipelago is a note by Becker " "In the Jolo Archipelago, the charts indicate several well-developed atolls, such as Simonul Island (latitude 4° 52, longitude 119° 50), as well as several in the Tapul group (latitude 5° 30). The charts of this region also show innumerable coral reefs, which are bare at low tide and must therefore have been uplifted" " Baranera, Francisco X. Compendio de geografia de las Islas Filipinas, marianas, Jolo y Carolinas. 3r ed. Manila, 1892. " Geology of the Philippine Islands, 562.
488 SMITH. LAKE LANAO ASL) VICINITY. All of the work in the region of Zamboanga and the Sulu Archipelago which it was at all feasible to undertake at this time having been completed, we left Zamboanga, Jstovember 6, for Overton. As our vessel kept close to the coast, I was able to make some notes which throw considerable light on the geologic changes now going on. The west coast of Mindanao has verj' certainly risen in comparatively recent times. Near Point Blanca on the northwestern part of the coast I saw a fine example of a raised delta, the elevation amounting to at least 10 meters. The characteristic structure of the delta was clearly revealed by the extensive marine erosion which had taken place. There were also many fine terraces shown along this coast and their existence supports the other evidence. The weather compelled us to run into a little cove near the point just off Dapitan. Of all the many inlets along the coasts of these islands I believe this to be one of the prettiest and most secure. No sign of an entrance can be seen at less than a kilometer away and certainly this point would be too "obscure to pick up at night. We went through a channel not over 45 meters wide between walls which in the darkness I took to be limestone, and emerged into a splendid basin with water as clear and placid as a mountain lake and with high walls on nearly all sides. By noon of the next day we anchored off the little stone fort at the entrance of Panguil Bay, which is in the extreme southwest corner of the much larger Bay of Iligan. The most conspicuous object at this place is Mount Malindang, an extinct volcano close to 2,700 meters in elevation lying to the west. Material from the slopes of this mountain is basaltic as I discovered by going up Panguil Bay in a hand in company Avith Lieutenant Lattamore, Philippines Constabulary, and a detachment of soldiers, landing at several points to enable me to go far enough inland to examine the rocks, as there are no outcrops on the coast. Mount Malindang is an old crater the rim of which is broken down on the side toward Misamis. It is for the most part covered with a luxuriant mantle of timber forest; the soil on its slopes is of a rich red and is undoubtedly very fertile. A number of Visayan colonies exist on the west side of Panguil Bay, but 911 the country to the east is Moro. We left this point on the morning of November 11 and reached Camp Overton at a little after noon. Mr. Ickis was to join me at this point, but as he was detained by quarantine. Lieutenant Caffery and I went forward over the military road to Camp Keithley (745 meters) where the climate is much cooler than in the coast towns. There is very little coastal plain in the region of Cami3 Overton, the hills rising so abruptly that the road has to wind back and forth in order to make the ascent. Tlie first jart passes through raised coral reefs, in
GEOLOGIC RECONNAISSANCE OP MINDANAO AND SULU. 493 FOIL COTABATO TO DAVAO. The town of Cotabato is situated on the south bank of the novel branch of the Rio Grande de Mindanao. It consists of a collection of low, white, Spanish houses fairly close together, with the usual native huts straggling about in the environs. Just south of and on the edge of the town is a limestone hill about 150 meters high from which a magnificent panorama (Plates XVI and XVII) can be obtained of the surrounding country. This hill is an outpost of a greater mass which is to be found to the south, and which formerly was undoubtedly still more extensive; it is very remarkable in that it stands out in the middle of the great delta, which forms all the river plain from the mouth of the river back and even beyond Fort Pikit. The most notable feature of the topography of this plain, beside the hill just mentioned, is the old terrace lines which swing along, but not always parallel to, either side of the river. These terraces are undoubtedly of marine origin, for close to Cotabato they are seen to be raised coral-reef shelves with the characteristic steep seaward slope of such formations. The evidence seems quite sufficient, to me at least, to suppose that the sea once swept far up this intermontane region which is now so filled with sediment. Indeed, I am convinced that it one time extended through to the Gulf of Davao, for in the stretch between the Pulangui Ei--er and Davao there are very recent sediments and volcanics which have closed up the passage. Cotabato hill is composed of a cavernous limestone with a fair sprinkling of fossils, corals, gastropods, lamellibranchs, etc, all of comparatively recent age, presumably Miocene, although no specific determinations have as yet been made. Plate XVIII shows the interior of a native salt-making establishment at the lower end of the delta. Sea water is sprayed over glowing embers, the salt is precipitated and afterwards washed on and run through the large filter shown in the background of the picture. This filter contains wood ashes and earth. At the Moro foundry near Cotabato, bolos, prices, and many metal boxes of brass and silver are fashioned. After some delay, we set out for Datu Piang's place at Cuderangan, some 50 Kilometers above Cotabato. Here we learned from Lieutenant Younglof, Philippine Scouts, of oil seeping from the river bank about half way between Veins Eugene and Fort Pikit and also near Pikit of a blue, plastic, oily clay which burns to a white color and is quite re-fractor). The Moros are said to come great distances to obtain this material. Eeina Eegente is on a hill of limestone similar to that of Cotabato. It is a monadnock. The underlying foundation is sandstone which will doubtless he found to be a good water carrier; it is very probable that good conditions for artesian wells can be obtained at almost any point of the valley. 78322 6
GEOLOGIC RECONNAISSANCE OF MINDANAO AND SULU. 495 We halted for the night at 75 meters' elevation at Sinauilan Creek, where soft, brownish-gray sandstone and conglomerate is exposed. December 19, 1907 Left camp at 6 a. m. Not much change either in topography or geology is apparent. Arrived at Digos, a small barrio on the coast of Davao Gulf, about 12 m, after a long walk over ground gently sloping to the beach. Here we spent the rest of the day and the night. December 20, 1907 We sent our cargadores and guard oi to Davao by trail while we took the launch Bolinao which stopped off this point at noon. We arrived at Davao about 7 p. m. after stopping at two or three plantations on the way and went ashore the morning of the 21st. At Digos we obtained our first clear-but view of Apo. The mountain, stood out clearly and boldly, a sharp cone set to the south and back of an older truncated mass which had evidently blown off its head in some firiniordial paroxysm. On the southeastern side is a huge crevasse, from which puffs of a bluish-white vapor issue. Below 2,100 meters there is a dense Jungle, a mass of green, but above this line the surface is all barren rock and apparently treeless, although when we ascended the mountain we found small bushes of blueberries. The present high peak known as Apo did not pour the great mass of lava and rock over this entire region. The explosion crater was about 8 kilometers to the northeast. Fig. 4 shows a profile sketch of this mountain-' A walk back over the plain behind Davao is interesting. About 300 meters behind the town, or about 2 kilometers from the beach, unmistakable signs of old beach lines are found, marked by one distinct terrace at least 15 to 33 meters above the flat on which the town is located. All this territory is made up of alluvial wash from the hills. The bowlders are largely andesitic. Lieutenant Caffery left the party at Davao to return to Zamboanga. Without his assistance the reconnaissance, up to the point where Davao was reached, would have been impossible. Daron, on the west side of the Gulf of Davao, was the starting point for the ascent of Mount Apo, the party consisting of Mr. Ickis, Mr. Goodman, who had just arrived from Manila, and Messrs. Carrigan and "" A good picture of Mount Apo will be found in the article on Volcanoes and Seismic Centers, in the Census of the Philippine Islands. (1903), 1, 201.
GEOLOGIC RECONNAISSANCE OF MINDANAO AND SULU. 497 ground; however, there are neither ashes nor lava. The pathway' follows the south side of a huge crevasse visible from far below, and after following this for about 300 meters crosses to the north side and continues along it and around its head to a knife-edged ridge leading to the summit. This crevasse in some places is probably 20 meters deep and 250 wide, it has eight or ten vents from which vapors containing sulphur dioxide issue. A cone of fairly pure sulphur surrounds each vent ; in individual cases these deposits may reach dimensions of several thousand kilos ; possibly there may be 400 metric tons of this material altogether. It probably' could not be handled conveniently. A clay tablet with the inscription — La clinica Expedicion a Volcan Ap6 1880 ilontano y Rajal exists at about 2,350 meters' altitude. Our party reached the summit at a little after noon. So far as is now known, this is the highest mountain peak in the Philippine Archipelago. The altitude was determined by two trials with the boiling-point method, which gave respectively 2,956 and 2,902 meters. The barometric reading at the first trial showed 2,811 meters, which number is, of course, considerably in error. The old Spanish Coast and Geodetic chart of this region gives 3,143 meters, but work now being carried on by the Coast and Geodetic Survey of the United States shows that the Spanish work in these waters is in error. The records of several parties are found on the summit, the earliest encountered being that of Schadenberg and Koch, 1882. None of the Montano expedition of 1880 was visible and possibly the tablet at about 2600 meters' altitude has been carelessly or maliciously removed from the top where it was originally placed. The highest point of the mountain, as determined by measurement, is reached by crossing a low sag to the next pinnacle, and here is placed a cairn containing a brass tube with a screw top marked "S. C" Inside is a neat scroll of the Sierra Club of California, duly stamped with its seal and signed by its president, John Miner. This scroll was deposited in the month of October of 1904, by Dr. E. B. Copeland, formerly of the Bureau of Science. Our party was the first to sign on the register. Sights, with the tiaiisit, were taken at all prominent points of the topography and boiling-point determinations were also made, although the work was much hampered by fog. The weather cleared in the late afternoon and we were able to observe the panorama from the summit. The Gulf of Davao was plainly visible with its island and coves, encircled by dark green wooded mountains and long volcanic slopes. The Rio Grande cuts across the foreground as a silver streak, extending far in the midst of many folds of green which continue without break to the skyline to the westward. The vast extent of the jungle in this island is very strongly impressed upon the observer. Mount Rattan is visible some 63 kilometers away, appearing as an isolated cone. It was sighted with a level, and appears to be but little lower, even at that distance, than the point on which we stood. If the curvature of the earth is taken
THE FISHERY RESOURCES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. PART I, COMMERCIAL FISHES. By Alvin Sessile. From the Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I) INTRODUCTION. We have received numerous requests for information regarding the commercial fisheries of the Philippine Islands, especially relating to the different kinds of edible fish and their abundance; the location of fishing-banks and the methods of capture. We have also been asked if fishing, entered into as a commercial venture, would be profitable. It is for the purpose of answering some of these questions that Part I of this series, based on my personal observation in the various islands of the group during the past year and a half, has been prepared. It is hoped that this paper, together with others to follow — namely, Part II, Sponge Fisheries; Part III, Pearl Fisheries; Part IV, Other Marine Products (aside from fishes, pearl oysters, and sponges) — will serve to create an interest and help in the development of the rich fishery assets of the Islands. THE ANCHOVIES. Family Engraulidae. (PI. I) There are at least four different species of anchovies in the Philippine waters, the most abundant, perhaps, being Anchovia commersoniana (Lacepede), called mills in Tagalog, monaco in Ilokano, and anahhat in More. Anchovia dussumieri Blocker, termed dumpilas in Tagalog, and mergui in Moro is a large species, but less abundant than the hills. The common anchovy (dilis) is found in great numbers along the shores of almost all the islands of the group; it is almost transparent, with very thin, deciduous scales. This species is a delicate little fish of fine flavor and would bring a good price, if put up in attractive form either in oil or spice, or if made into anchovy paste. 513
514 SEALE. THE MEETINGS. Family Clupeidae. (PI. II) There are about thirteen distinct species of herring represented in the Philippine waters and notwithstanding their rather small size, they are of considerable commercial importance. The abound in immense numbers along the coasts of almost all the islands of the group. Some are more or less migratory, others seem to remain near one place. Large numbers are caught in Manila Bay at all seasons of the year. These represent the forms called tunsoy Harengula moluccensis (Bleeker), tamban H. longiceps Bleeker), and hilis H. gibbosa (Bleeker). The young of all species are termed silinasi. Great numbers are caught in corrals, especially during May and June ; they are also taken in the drag-seine. It is not an unusual sight to see large bananas loaded to the gunwale with herring living landed at Tondo beach, where the fish are sold to the Chinese to le smoked and dried. The natives in Zamboanga buy large quantities to eat in the fresh state. Any of these sardines would compare favorably with the species put up) in oil on the Pacific coast. During the nine months from January first to September first, 1907, 85,000 pesos worth of canned sardines were imported into the Philippines; this, too, with the Philippine waters swarming with sardines and with an abundance of good sesame oil which could be used for canning purposes, produced in Manila. THE SILVERSIDES. Family Atherinidae. (PI. III) The silverside, called him in Tagalog and Moro, and ti-i in Ilokano, is without doubt the most abundant fish in the Philippines. It is almost impossible to land at any wharf or go ashore on any beach without seeing these little fish in countless numbers. They usually grow to a length of from 10 to 12 centimeters. They have a greenish tint on the back and a bright, silvery band on the sides. There are five or six different species, but they appear so much alike that the natives have not distinguished between them, calling all simply ratio. The most common species is possibly Atherina, temmincki (Bleeker). The guno are known as pescados del rey, 'fishes of the king" among the Spaniards. They are gi-eatly valued as food. The young are termed whitebait. The method of catching is usually by seine or corral. A profitable industry could be built up bj' preparing these fish in a good sauce, by pickling them with spices, or by drying. An abundant supply