Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 14 General Description of the Archipelago abundant traces of volcanic action in acres of lava and blackened scoriae. Between the numberless forest-clad ranges are luxuriant plains glowing in all the splendour of tropical vegetation. The valleys, generally of rich fertility, are about one-third under cultivation. There are numerous rivers, few of which are navigable by sea-going ships. Vessels drawing up to 13 feet can enter the Pasig River, but this is due to the artificial means employed. The principal Rivers are:—In Luzon Island the Rio Grande de Cagayan, which rises in the South Caraballo Mountain in the centre of the island, and runs in a tortuous stream to the northern coast. It has two chief affluents, the Rio Chico de Cagayan and the Rio Magat, besides a number of streams which find their way to its main course. Steamers of 11-feet draught have entered the Rio Grande, but the sand shoals at the mouth are very shifty, and frequently the entrance is closed to navigation. The river, which yearly overflows its banks, bathes the great Cagayan Valley,—the richest tobacco-growing district in the Colony. Immense trunks of trees are carried down in the torrent with great rapidity, rendering it impossible for even small craft—the barangayanes—to make their way up or down the river at that period. The Rio Grande de la Pampanga rises in the same mountain and flows in the opposite direction—southwards,—through an extensive plain, until it empties itself by some 20 mouths into the Manila Bay. The whole of the Pampanga Valley and the course of the river present a beautiful panorama from the summit of Arayat Mountain, which has an elevation of 2,877 feet above the sea level. The whole of this flat country is laid out into embanked rice fields and sugar-cane plantations. The ...