natural ports of refuge for ships in distress. Another attribute
which, though not to be realized by a glance at the map, is yet one
of the most fortunate the Islands possess, is the countless number
of small streams which pour down from the inland hills, and open out,
ere they reach the ocean, into broad estuaries; up these watercourses
coasting vessels of shallow draught can sail to the very foot of the
mountains and take in their cargo. [Soil and sea alike productive.] The
fertility of the soil is unsurpassed; both the sea around the coasts
and the inland lakes swarm with fish and shell-fish, while in the whole
archipelago there is scarcely a wild beast to be found. It seems that
only two civets happen to appear: Miro (paradoxurus philippinensis
Tem.) and galong (viverra tangalunga Gray). Luzon surpasses all the
other islands, not only in size, but in importance; and its fertility
and other natural superiority well entitle it to be called, as it is
by Crawfurd, "the most beautiful spot in the tropics."

[Luzon.] The mainland of the isle of Luzon stretches itself in a
compact long quadrangle, twenty-five miles broad, from 18° 40' north
latitude to the Bay of Manila (14° 30'); and then projects, amid
large lakes and deep creeks, a rugged promontory to the east, joined
to the main continent by but two narrow isthmuses which stretch east
and west of the large inland Lagoon of Bay. Many traces of recent
upheavals betoken that the two portions were once separated and
formed two distinct islands. The large eastern promontory, well-nigh
as long as the northern portion, is nearly cut in half by two deep
bays, which, starting from opposite points on the south-eastern
and north-western coasts, almost merge their waters in the center
of the peninsula; the Bay of Ragay, and the Bay of Sogod. In fact,
the southern portion of Luzon may be better described as two small
peninsulas lying next to one another in parallel positions, and joined