particular, the slabs had been appropriated.

Copper is extracted in small quantities by both the wild tribes of
the North and the Mahometans of the South, who manufacture utensils
of this metal for their own use. In the North, half-worked copper
is obtained from the Igorrotes, but the attempt of a company--the
_Compania Cantabro-Filipina_, established in the middle of last
century--to exploit the copper deposits in Mancayan, in the district
of Lepanto, has hardly been more successful than all other mining
speculations undertaken on a large scale in this Colony.

Marble exists in large beds in the Province of Bataan, which is the
west-coast boundary of Manila Bay, and also in the Island of Romblon,
but, under the circumstances explained, no one cared to risk capital
in opening quarries. In 1888 surface (boulder) marble was being cut
near Montalban (Rizal) under contract with the Dominican friars to
supply them with it for their church in Manila. It was of a motley
whitish colour, polished well, and a sample of it sent by me to a
marble-importer in London was reported on favourably.

Granite is not found in these Islands, and there is a general want
of hard stone for building purposes. Some is procurable at Angono,
up the Lake of Bay, and it is from here that the stone was brought
by the Spaniards for the Manila Port Works. Granite is brought over
from Hong-Kong when needed for works of any importance, such as the
new Government House in Manila City, in course of construction when
the Spaniards evacuated the Islands. For ordinary building operations
there is a material--a kind of marl-stone called _Adobe_--so soft
when quarried that it can be cut out in small blocks with a hand-saw,
but it hardens considerably on exposure to the air.

Gypsum deposits occur in a small island opposite to the town of
Culasi (Antique) on the west coast of Panay, called Marilisan. The
superincumbent marl has been removed in several places where regular
workings were carried on for years by natives, and shiploads of it
were sent to Manila until the Spanish Government prohibited its free
extraction and export.

Sulphur exists in many islands, sometimes pure, in unlimited
quantities, and often mixed with copper, iron, and arsenic. The
crater peak of the Taal Volcano in the Bombon Lake burst in 1749
(_vide_ p. 18), and from that date, until the eruption of 1754,
sulphur was extracted by the natives. These deposits were again
worked in 1780,