_Lipa_, _Batanzas_, _Bauan_, and _Cavite_ are cities of about forty thousand population, all more or less connected with the industries of Manila. _Iloilo_ is the second port of importance of the islands, and is the centre of a considerable export trade in tobacco, hemp, sugar, and sapan-wood. _Cebu_ is also a port having a considerable trade. =Tutuila=, one of the Samoan Islands, was acquired by treaty for use as a coal-depot and naval station. _Pago Pago_ is a port of call for steamships between San Francisco and Australia. =Guam=, one of the Ladrone Islands, is a naval station. These possessions are strategic and are designed to secure the interests of the United States in the Pacific. An ocean telegraphic cable connects the Pacific Ocean possessions with the United States and Asia. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION Why are mountain-regions apt to be sparsely peopled? Why are arid regions sparsely peopled, as a rule? Why are not gold-mining settlements so apt to be permanent as agricultural settlements? From the Abstract of Statistics find the production of gold and silver of this region for each ten years ending the last half of the century. What causes the difference between the wool clip of southern California and that of the Eastern States? Follow the route of a grain-carrying ship from San Francisco to Liverpool. What are the advantages to the United States of the accession of the Hawaiian Islands?--of the Philippine Islands?--of Alaska? What are the disadvantages? FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE Mineral Resources of the United States. Abstract of Statistics. U.S. Coast Survey Chart of Alaska. Map of Hawaiian Islands. Map of Philippine Islands. [Illustration: NIAGARA POWER-HOUSE (EXTERIOR)] [Illustration: NIAGARA POWER-HOUSE (INTERIOR)] CHAPTER XXI CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND A very large part of Canada is so far north that the ordinary food-stuffs cannot be grown there; the river-valleys of British Columbia and the basin of the Saskatchewan excepted, there are but few marks of human industry beyond the fiftieth parallel. The general conditions of topography resemble those of the United States--a central plain between the high Rocky Mountain ranges in the west and the lower Laurentian ranges in the east. Canada is an agricultural country, and because of the great skill with which its resources have been made commercially available, it is the most important colony of Great Britain. The basin of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River is the most populous part of the country. This region is highly cultivated and produces dairy products, beef, and the ordinary farm-crops. From Lake Winnipeg westward, nearly to the Rocky Mountains, the land is a succession of prairies admirably suited to wheat-growing.[56] The wheat is a hard, spring variety, and the average yield per acre is about one-fourth greater than the average yield in the United States.