Gold is certainly very widely distributed in the islands. I have seen women washing the sands of the River San José del Puray in the province of Manila, and noted what small specks they collected. I was informed that their average earnings were about 25 cents per day. Whether these sands could be dredged and washed mechanically on a large scale with profit I cannot say. In 1890, I ascended the Puray River and went up the Arroyo Macaburabod to where it bifurcates. There, close to the boundary of the province of Manila and district of Moron, I found a face of disintegrated quartz glittering with large crystals of iron pyrites. This was near a geological frontier where the igneous and sedimentary rocks joined, and the neighbourhood was highly mineralized, there being iron, coal, and gold within a short distance. I took a large number of samples, and the analyst Anacleto del Rosario declared that one of them gave an assay of 17 dwts. of gold to the ton. But of course such assays prove nothing, for the accidental presence of a grain of gold in the sample would make all the difference in the results. Near Gapan in Nueva Écija more profitable washings are situated, and at times large numbers of men and women are to be seen at work, especially after a sudden flood has come down. The sands of the River Agno also yield gold, and the washing for it is quite an industry amongst the Pangasinan women about Rosales, but the return is said to be small. But after a north-westerly gale has heaped up the black sand at the mouth of this river in the Bay of Lingayen, the people turn out in numbers to wash it, and sometimes have better luck. But although these washings are poor, a considerable quantity of gold is obtained from the Igorrotes, and there is no doubt that these people have for centuries worked quartz veins or pockets, and that they only extract sufficient for their modest requirements in the way of purchasing cattle, cloth, and tools. They do not hoard any gold, for they say that it is safer in the mine than in their houses. When one of them requires a few ounces he goes to his mine, gets it out, and immediately proceeds to purchase what he wants. Possibly they do not consider the supply inexhaustible, and they have thought for to-morrow, or for those who will come after them. It is not their object to exhaust the bounties of nature in the shortest possible time. When they have found a rich pocket they build a house over the pit, and when not at work they cover the hole with roughly-hewn planks or logs ; they take precautions in disposing of the detritus, so that it does not call attention from a distance.