MINERALS
"It is not only what towers above us, that makes our islands rich. Dig
at your feet, and you will find valuable minerals! Magellan, the
Spaniard, first discovered the Philippine Islands while he was on a
search for gold, though I think a rubber tree, or a bamboo, is more
valuable than gold," said the wise Padre.
"We get gold in two ways," explained Fil. "We wash it from scooped-up
gravel, and we break it out of rock with a hammer."
"And how do you melt your iron and copper?" I inquired.
"We dig coal, and use bamboo pipes and a bellows to make the draft. We
put the ore into a clay kettle, and melt the rock out of it. Then,
when the iron is pure, we heat it again until it is red, and beat it
with hammers into shapes. Thus we make it into wheels, spears, axes,
and so on," explained Fil, who had watched the workmen at their labors.
"I know little about practical, mechanical affairs; tell me more,"
urged Filippa.
"We have petroleum oil, just as America has; also, lead and paint
ores. We have burnt-out volcano hills, composed of sulphur down into
their deep hearts."
"That is like a very bad place, way down below, that I have read
about," interrupted Moro; and Fil's mother and the Padre shook their
fingers at him for joking.
Fil continued: "We have beautiful marble quarries, out of which we can
carve statues and table tops, and tops for seats. Our marble is full
of colored veins just like jewels. Then we also have gypsum mines,
which furnish both fertilizer for land, to make crops grow high,
and plaster of Paris, out of which we make pretty white statues."
"Wonderful!" I said, "I never thought of all this, when at home I
bought the lovely white statues of lions and birds, from the vendor
man with the basketful, on our street corner."