General Topography of the Islands.

The Philippines, with the Sulu Protectorate, number about 600 habitable islands, that lie all the way from 4° 45′ to 21° N. latitude.

The area of the eleven largest islands is variously computed to be somewhere between 55,000 and 150,000 square miles. It is probably not far from the latter sum. All the islands together are about as large as the combined area of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware.

The eleven largest islands are: Luzon, Mindanao, Sámar, Panay, Negros, Palaúan, Mindoro, Leyte, Cebú, Masbate, and Bojol. Luzon and Mindanao are probably as large as all the others combined.

All the islands are mountainous and of volcanic formation.

Here is a list of the principal peaks:

Halcon, (Mindoro)8,868 feet above sea.
Apo, (Mindanao)8,804 feet above sea.
Mayon: active volcano, (Luzon)8,283 feet above sea.
San Cristobal, (Luzon)7,375 feet above sea.
Isarog, (Luzon)6,443 feet above sea.
Banájao (Luzon)6,097 feet above sea.
Labo (Luzon)5,090 feet above sea.
South Caraballo, (Luzon)4,720 feet above sea.
Caraballo del Baler (Luzon)3,933 feet above sea.
Maquiling, (Luzon)3,720 feet above sea.

In the interior of the islands are magnificent forests of stately trees, splendid with luxuriant foliage and the glorious flora of the tropics. Here are gigantic creepers and gorgeous festoons,—the splendid parasites of this opulent clime. Luscious fruits in rich clusters hang from pendent boughs of myriad trees, inviting the passer-by to pluck.

One that has never seen it, can form no idea of the splendor of such a tropical forest—teeming with all that is brilliant and grand in nature. It would seem as if the Creator had emptied the cornucopia of his gifts over this garden-spot of the world, making it a veritable Eden.

There are many rivers throughout the islands,—some navigable. The Pasig river, in Luzon, empties into Manila Bay. Vessels drawing thirteen feet of water enter the Pasig river. In the same island, the Rio Grande de Cagayan is also navigable and runs through the Cagayan valley northward. It yearly overflows its banks. On them are the richest tobacco-districts in the colony. The Rio Grande de la Pampanga flows southward through the glorious valley of Pampanga, emptying by twenty mouths into Manila Bay. On the banks of this river are extensive rice-fields and sugar-cane plantations, and great forests; among them gleam numerous towns and villages, full of a thriving population. The Rio Agno, which flows southward, past the port of Dagupan and the Bicol river—which flows from Bato lake to the bay of San Miguel—is also in Luzon, and navigable.