Note 1 — Coal—Gold—Iron—Copper—Sulphur, Etc.

Anthracite has been found in Cebú,1 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 Cebú 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 Alpacó Mountain, in the district of Naga (Cebú Is.) as being pure, dry, of easy combustion, carrying a strong flame, and almost free from sulphur pyrites. Cebú 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.