product
that many might have seed for this spring.

MINERALS.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

Gold is found in every stream of the islands. In small bottles I
saw many little nuggets which the natives had picked up. Whether it
would pay to use good machinery to extract he gold I cannot tell;
but certain it is that they use a great deal of gold in the curiously
wrought articles of jewelry of which they are all passionately fond.

A man who was greatly interested in the mines of Klondike said that
there were better chances of getting gold in the Philippines and
that he had given up all his northern claims and was now using his
energies to secure leases in the new territory. Other minerals, too,
he said, are abundant and valuable.

I had a small brass dagger which I used to carry for defense and, upon
showing it to some of my friends, since my return, I was asked if I
saw this dagger made, because if I knew the secret of its annealing
it would be worth a fortune to me.

I had missed a golden chance for I had often visited a rude foundry
where they made bolos and other articles, but it did not occur to me
that there could be anything of value to expert workmen at home in
these crude hand processes.

The soldiers that accompanied me, as well as I myself, went into
convulsions of laughter over the shape of their bellows and the
working of their forge. Everything they do seemed to us to be done in
the most awkward manner; it is done backward if possible. The first
time I saw a carriage hitched before the animal I wondered how they
could ever manage it.

Bolos are of all sizes and shapes and are made of steel or iron to
suit the fancy of the person. Some are of the size and pattern of an
old-fashioned corn cutter, handles of carved wood or carabao horn;
sometimes made with a fork-like tip and waved with saw teeth edge. It
is an indispensable tool in war and peace. There were none so poor as
not to have a bolo. They made cannon, too, and guns patterned after
our American ones. And sometimes cannon were made out of bamboo,
bound around with bands of iron. These were formidable and could
shoot with as much noise as a brass one, if not with as much accuracy.

They must get a great deal of silver, as they have so many silver
articles; they insert bits of silver in the handles of bolos. These
bolos are used for everything. One day I found that the little tin
oven which I brought from home was all worn out on the inside. I