Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-31

! turpentine pine treesi Of the south Atlantic
coast. -
There is also a soft cedar wood here like
that we use foFt cigar boxes. 1t IS cut from
logs from thirty to forty feet long and al
most yard square. Another wood is called
bullet wood. becauseJit is as hard as bull
| let: 1t is so hard that it can be driven right
through ordinary wood and for this reason
it sometimes takes tie place of nails. II is
largely employed in the making Of r.oats at
Manila and also in. house building. Then
there are the Sfipan woods which wf1en cut
into pieces and boiled furnish bright red
dye; the Ace wood. W icn will resist FIRE a
long time. and the Aransa. Which furnishes
logs two feet square md seventy-five feet
long. This wood will withstand the attacks
OF the sea worms. and is therefore valuable
for wharves. plies and ship building
In addition to these there are many other
varieties OF timber which might be sold at
profit in the United States One of the
marked characteristics of the forests is
their many large trees, trees which fur
n1sh logs from fifty to seventy-five feet in
length and from two feet and upward IN
thickness. 1 have seen mahogany tables
six feet wide and twelve feet in length, the
tops being made of one board, and have
walked over great teak wood logs in cross
ing canal on a stream.
l have asked several people why these
Forests have not been exploited by the
Spanards. and have been told that one
reason was that the Spanish government
eSacted a specias permission to cut timber
ana another was the heavy taxes which
were imposed. The question of getting la
nor to cut the trees and haul the logs out
mas been a serious one, and one which
REQUIRES considerable capital The labor
used has been almost entirely Filipino labor
winch IS very uncertain. The men will
stop work on the slightest pretext and it
Is only by getting them into a sort of debt
slavery or peonage that steady work can
be secured There are but few roads and
no railroads. The only beasts of value are
the water buffaloes, which are the freight
~ g nd 1t,t,,I
Much of the timber lies near the sea. and
now that Uncle Sam has the islands meas
ures will probably be undertaken to get
1t out am told that the best of the for
esfs are in the southern islands and that
great part of Mindanao is one vast woods
made up of valuable virgin forest trees
Gold In the Philippines.
There is no doubt that gold exists all over
the Philippines, but whether it is in paying
quantities remains for the prospector to
settle. l have reports every day of the
existence of small placer deposits and of
streams the beds of which when washed
show color.
The most of the stories are from the
troops who have been in the mountainous
Observation-Disclosures which are inhabited
chiefly by savages and some of which have
not been accessible 10 the ordinary pros
pector The average Filipino, it must be
remembered, is not traveller. He sticks to
You'd it. The head-hunting natives have to
some extent kept the Spanards out of the
mountains, so that the country is to a
large extent uneXplored
few weeks ago General Grant led his
regiments across the mountains northeast
of Luzon into the province of Zi,nhaIes.
Inc men tell me their way was through
the woods and across streams which bore
good indications of carving gold At one
place Captain Pardie and some other off
GERS washed double handful of gravel
and in it found five fakes of gold. In most
OF the beds of the streams eolor.was found.
put nowhere were there any signs of quartz
deposits.
About two hundred miles by sea north of
haniia Is port called Vigan. There are
row soldiers there. and expeditions have
been recently made into the mountains at
the east In this region gold is also to be
seen in the hands II the natives. They
WASH IT. 1t Is said. OUT of the beds of creeks
ana trade the dust and little nuggets to the
Chinese, who give them about SO Mexican
an ounce | have heard it said that the
chinese are able in places to exchange sill
Yer for gold at the same weight, but this.
like many of the stories told here. is prob
ably without foundation
How the Savaxes Sell Gold.
1t is impossible for one to understand how
gold could exist here For hundreds of wears
with the country in the hands of the Span
lards without its being discovered and
mined unless he knows the conditions which
prevail in most parts of the mountains
They are wild and without roads of anv
Kind Their only Inhabitants are the Neeri
los, isorrotes. Gadfenes and other sayaees
ne more peaceful parts of the islands have
Always mad their thieves and brigaads 50
that mining has been. to say the least. ex
tremeiy dangerous. Such gold as has been
discovered has also been kept secret for
fear of robbery.
From the American" one of the daily
papers of Manila. give an extract from =
report of correspondent who has inst re
tHfhed from the Zimbafes region. Said he:
of one of the natives. 1t was made mn Of
nuggets of virgin gold, the smallest Of
which was as big as pea Holes had heen
p.ereed through the nuggets and they were
strung on silk cord. The gold was of a
light yellow color and had evidently come
from the surface of the ground IT. owner
had purchased the nuggets of a .:egrito
but he could not learn where they had
come from o"
At this same time rich Filipino of one
OF the towns near the foot of the noun
, L, finding that the soldiers did not intend
70 steal from HIM" pulled out small buck
skin sack and showed about three ounces
OF gold. which he had recently bought from
the Negritos. This was coarse gold. most
OF the grains being about the size of a
kernaI of rice, The man said he under-
stood that the Negritos picked the grains
out or the clear mountain streams and that
they had no other methods of mining nor
uld tney seem TO wish to engage in mining
Gold in Mindanns.
Gen. Bates tells me he has heard reports
of gold being found in the Island of Min
danao. This is the second largest of the
Philippine group. being almost as large as
Kentucky. 1t is practically unexplored, and
is inhabited chiefly by savages The chief
Washings are now on the northern part of
the island far away from the part occupied
by our troops The gold finds it's way into
the hands of the petty sultans and datos.
who sell it to the foreigners. 1t is said that
the amount of alluvial gold which has been
thus sold leads to the belief that there must
be quartz veins in Mindanao.
I have not visited the Island of Mfndoro
This lies only few miles east of southern
Luzon, and is inhabited almost entirely nv
savages. Its name Is a corruption of NINA
de-oro," or mine of gold. 1t is reported that
the island has many placer deposits When
Dean Worcester visited it he was told nv
the natives that they could take him to a
place where there was so much gold that #
would dazzle his eyes, but he does not saw
that he accepted their offer.
Valuable Mines.
There are mines in Luzon which have
produced considerable gold in the past. The
Spanish government kept records of their