rd no more about it until he went to the capital, where he
learnt that the Managing Director had resigned, and no one knew who
was his successor, what had become of his report, or anything definite
relating to the concern.

Anthracite has been found in Cebu, [155] and satisfactory trials have
been made with it, mixed with British bituminous coal. Perhaps volcanic
action may account for the volatile bituminous oils and gases having
been driven off the original deposits. The first coal-pits were sunk
in Cebu in the Valle de Masanga, but the poor commercial results led
to their abandonment about the year 1860. There are also extensive
unworked coal deposits a few miles from the west coast village of
Asturias, which I visited in 1896 with a planter friend, Eugenio
Alonso, who was endeavouring to form a coal-mining syndicate. The
_Revista Minera_ (a Madrid mining journal) referred in 1886 to the
coal of the Alpaco Mountain, in the district of Naga (Cebu Is.) as
being pure, dry, of easy combustion, carrying a strong flame, and
almost free from sulphur pyrites. Cebu coal is said to be of better
quality and cleaner than the Labuan and Australian products, but its
heating powers being less, it is less serviceable for long sea voyages.

The coal-mines in the hills around the Cumansi Valley, about eight
miles from the Cebu coast (Danao) have been worked for years without
financial success. The quality is reported excellent. Indeed,
in several of the larger islands of the Colony there are outcrop
indications of workable coal, unobtainable for want of transport
facilities.

In the Province of Albay, the Sugod Collieries were started by a
company formed in the year 1874. There were some fifteen partners,
each of whom subscribed a capital of P14,300. One of these partners,
Ceferino de Aramburu, told me that for a while the result was so
good that a Manila banking firm offered to take over the concern
from the shareholders at a premium of 20 per cent. upon the original
capital. About 4,000 tons of coal were extracted, most of which was
given away as samples, in the hope of large contracts resulting from
the trials, although it is said that the consumption was too rapid,
and that it had to be mixed with Cardiff coal. Seven pits were sunk,
and the concern lingered on until the year 1881, when its working
was relinquished. The failure was attributed to the shallowness of
the pits, which were only 30 metres deep, whilst it was supposed