The Philippines: Past and Present Volume II Part 32

Spanish mackerel, or tanguingui, are common throughout the islands at the proper season. A very intelligent Filipino collector of natural history specimens in the service of the government, who saw my sixty-five-pound specimen landed, a.s.sured me that he had previously seen larger ones caught.

Swordfish, nine feet or more in length, may be taken during the cooler months.

Tarpons up to five feet in length may be taken at the proper season, off the mouths of large streams. The species is distinct from that found in Atlantic waters, and the young take the fly freely.

Ten pounders, commonly called bid-bid in the Philippines, are not uncommon, and in spite of their name often attain a weight of thirty pounds.

Tunas. The great, or leaping, tunas are met with in large schools during the winter months. The natives call them "cachareta." So far as I am aware, none have yet been taken with rod and line, but their capture is, of course, only a question of time.

I believe it certain that the Philippines will become a Mecca for deep-sea fishermen, and to the end that piscatorial pilgrims may not come in vain, reliable data are being gathered and compiled by the Division of Fisheries of the Bureau of Science. The exact locations where exceptionally good catches are made are being marked on a comprehensive series of charts which cover the entire archipelago, and an accurate card record is also kept giving full information as to the localities where, the seasons when and the weather conditions under which exceptional catches have been made. Fishermen seeking fine sport and novel experiences will surely not be disappointed if they come to the Philippines.

While it is possible to find sheltered waters at any season, and to take fish throughout the year, our experience thus far seems to justify the belief that the months from January to August are on the whole the most favourable ones.

Fishermen may establish themselves at some favourable point, such as one of the many excellent camping grounds on Malampaya Sound, and work from this as a base, with no other water transportation than the motor boats from which they fish. Those who wish to have a good movable base of operations and to explore for themselves may, by making seasonable application, secure the use of one of the government coast guard boats at a cost of $115 a day. These convenient little vessels measure one hundred forty-eight feet over all and draw nine to eleven feet of water, according to the amount of coal carried and its distribution. They are safe in all weathers. Most of them have four good staterooms for pa.s.sengers, with berths for eight people; but as they are provided with good double awnings and have abundant deck room, a much larger number of persons can be made comfortable, if willing to sleep on deck, using the staterooms for dressing-rooms. As a matter of fact, people who have been long in the islands seldom think of sleeping inside. The coast guard boats readily carry four motor boats on their davits, and two more might be placed on deck forward. The Negros is especially fitted out, and has stateroom accommodations for twenty people. All of these vessels have electric light, refrigerating plants and distilling plants.

I know of nothing more delightful than to explore the sh.o.r.es and bays of this wonderful archipelago in such a vessel, fishing and landing when and where one pleases. With the certainty of fine weather during the winter months the nights under the deck awnings are a delight, and nothing will more promptly restore jangling nerves to a normal state, straighten out impaired digestion and bring back vigorous health, than will such a salt water fishing trip in the Philippines.

Ducks and snipe are the stand-bys for the hunters who love the shotgun. A few years ago magnificent duck shooting was to be had on the Laguna de Bay, as well as in the province of Bataan just across the bay from Manila. Unfortunately the ducks on the Laguna were educated by some stupid fellows who shot at them with a Colt automatic gun. The ideas which they then developed as to danger zones seem to have persisted ever since, and it is now difficult to get within range of the great flocks which still continue to frequent this the largest fresh-water lake in the Philippines.

Ducks have been shot in season and out of season around the water-holes in Bataan and in the Candaba Swamp, as well as in the vicinity of the fish pens in Bulacan. The shooting has fallen off rapidly here, and in Nueva Ecija and Tarlac, for the same cause. We are powerless to remedy this condition. Some years ago a law was pa.s.sed authorizing the secretary of the interior to provide regulations governing the seasons during which game might be shot, but through oversight no penalty was provided for the infraction of these regulations, and the a.s.sembly has persistently refused to amend the law in this respect.

On Naujan Lake in Mindoro, and elsewhere in the provinces, magnificent duck shooting may still be had. The whistling tree-duck and the Philippine mallard are the two species which afford the best sport, although pin-tails, bluebills, widgeons, and blue- and green-wing teal come in on migration as does a tiny goose, smaller than the ordinary duck. Several other species stray into the southern Philippines from the Celebes, while at least one Formosan species sometimes visits the Batanes Islands.

Jacksnipe come to the islands in enormous numbers from Asia, usually arriving about the middle of August in northern and central Luzon and gradually working their way south to Mindanao. The return migration commonly comes during February. The flight of the Asiatic jacksnipe is exactly like that of his American brother. In fact only an ornithologist can distinguish between the two species. A bag of one hundred birds to the gun is by no means unusual at the height of the season, and a strong sentiment is developing among Americans in favour of limiting the bag.

There are very numerous species of pigeons and doves in the Philippines. All of them are excellent table birds and several of them offer good sport. If one can take up his position under a fruit tree frequented by the great gray and green pigeons, known locally as baluds, about the middle of the afternoon he will get a wonderful series of shots at incoming birds flying fifty or more yards up in the air. They approach very rapidly, so that one must lead them a long distance, "pulling them out of sight" in order to bring them down. One may burn many a cartridge before he learns the knack of stopping these powerful, swift-flying birds. During certain seasons the larger pigeons roost, in countless thousands, in trees on little isolated cays remote from the larger islands, where wonderful shooting may be had during the morning and evening flights.

Junglefowl, the ancestors of all our domestic breeds of poultry, are to be found throughout the islands but only in a few places do they offer much opportunity for the sportsman who likes to kill his birds on the wing. Prior to the last eruption they were very numerous on the slopes of Taal Volcano.

A party which happened to visit Cavilli, a small isolated coral island in the Sulu Sea, once found it alive with junglefowl. No one else has ever seen any there. Obviously a great flock flew in and then flew away again.

Particularly fine sport may be had on Fuga Island by walking along the edge of the forest in the late afternoon. The birds which are then feeding in the open fly straight for cover and present difficult cross shots.

The larger hornbills are very good to eat, but as easy to hit on the wing as a fair-sized door sailing through the air would be, so do not offer much sport.

Wild hogs are abundant throughout the archipelago. Deer are found on nearly all of the islands, but there are several noteworthy exceptions, such as Palawan and Cebu. The Filipinos are very fond of hunting deer. Sometimes they run them down with dogs and drive them into nets where they lance them--a most unsportsman-like proceeding. The wealthier Filipinos like to take up their stations at good strategic posts, and then have the country beaten toward them. In this way they sometimes get fifty or more deer in a single drive. I have never been able to see anything very exciting about this method of hunting.

It is very good sport, on occasion, to still-hunt deer. The best deer shooting I have ever had was at what is called the Cogonal Grande in the center of the island of Culion. It is a great circular valley sloping very gradually toward the center. Its higher portions are overgrown with cogon gra.s.s which gives the valley its name. Probably it was once the bed of a lake. At all events its center is swampy at the present time and has grown up into a hopeless jungle of panda.n.u.s, bamboo gra.s.s, etc., through which runs a maze of deer paths. Numerous little canons lead down from the neighbouring hills to this valley and each of them has forest in it.

In the month of December, when the cogon is dry, if fired it burns toward the centre on all sides until the blaze reaches the wet swampy portion where the vegetation is not dry enough to burn. If dogs are then put into the little stretches of forest which run down the ravines toward the open valley, they almost invariably drive out deer which run straight for the tangle at its centre, necessarily crossing ground which has been burned bare.

As a result one gets hard cross shots but has the advantage of seeing every bullet strike, as the soil is very dry at this season. This makes interesting shooting. One gets game enough to keep the camp in meat and not enough so that he feels like a butcher.

Many hunters go out at night with bull's-eye lanterns, shine the deer and fire at their eyes. This is not so bad as jacking them from a boat, because a man who hunts on foot necessarily makes a good deal of noise, and they are apt to become alarmed and run away, whereas one can approach in a boat so silently that they do not hear the noise of the paddles or the rippling of the water.

Hunting at night in this way in the Philippines is very interesting. One sees all sorts of nocturnal animals which are never met with by day, and also gets a good opportunity to pick up owls, nighthawks and other birds which are not ordinarily taken except by accident. However, the ordinary hunter is not an ornithologist, and does not care for such opportunities.

Wild hogs are hunted much as are deer. They drive readily. On account of the habit of the old boars of turning and facing dogs when the latter molest them, it is easy to bring them down.

The common people kill wild hogs with spears after the dogs have brought them to bay. This is by no means a safe undertaking, as some of the old boars attain tremendous size, have very formidable tusks and are capable of killing a man in short order if able to come to close quarters with him.

The wild hogs of the Philippines are very cleanly beasts. They take daily baths whenever possible, and often build for themselves beds of clean, fresh brush. They are extremely intelligent animals, and it is therefore very difficult to still-hunt them. In view of their huge bulk and ungainly proportions the absolute silence with which they move through the forests cannot fail to impress one who sees them stealing quietly along. After being disturbed they make plenty of noise as they rush away.

One of the best ways to still-hunt them is to secrete one's self near a water hole which they frequent for bathing purposes, but their sense of smell is very keen, and if the wind happens to blow in the wrong direction they will not approach the place where a hunter is lying in wait.

Wild hogs are fruit eaters for the most part, and their flesh is delicious. They are enormously abundant on the island of Tawi Tawi, where the durian tree abounds. The Moro inhabitants will not touch them, and as food is very plentiful during much of the year the island swarms with them, and they attain the largest size. Moros say that during the fruit season they become so covered with fat that if pursued for any length of time they fall, overcome by the heat and the running!

When I was in Tawi Tawi in 1901 with Dr. Bourns and a Filipino helper, one of us took a rifle along each morning when we went out to collect birds and in a few moments, after finishing his bird shooting for the day, was able to kill hogs enough to keep not only our party but the local Spanish garrison in meat, while the lard which our servants tried out lasted us for more than a year thereafter.

There are two animals in the Philippines which can with propriety be dignified by the name of "big game." These are the wild carabao, which is still to be found in various parts of the archipelago, and the tamarau, a true buffalo of a species which occurs nowhere in the world except on the island of Mindoro.

The wild carabao is a formidable antagonist, hard to stop and a vicious fighter after he is once wounded. Under ordinary circ.u.mstances he is very wary and difficult to approach. It is highly important in hunting him to use bullets with great stopping power. A number of men have been killed in the Philippines by wild carabaos which they had severely wounded. The most recent case which has come to my knowledge was that of a Mr. Barbour, in Mindoro. He was an old hand at the game, and had killed fifty-odd specimens. He shot a bull three times and it dropped apparently dead. Walking close up to it he dropped the b.u.t.t of his rifle to the ground between his legs, and held the barrel with his knees while trying to light a cigarette. Without the slightest warning the injured bull sprang to its feet and drove a horn completely through him, killing him instantly.

There is an interesting and unsettled question as to whether the wild carabaos of the Philippines are indigenous to the islands or are merely the descendants of imported animals which have made their escape from captivity. My own opinion is that both beliefs are true or, in other words, that we have both a native wild race and other carabaos just as wild and just as fierce which are the descendants of tame individuals. The ordinary wild bulls have comparatively short and thick horns, while the bulls of the species found in Nueva Ecija and in northern Luzon generally have long, slender, very sharp, strongly curved horns. I believe that the latter animals belong to the true native race.

Wild carabaos are found not only at various points in Luzon, but abundantly in Mindoro and the Calamianes Islands. They appear in considerable numbers in Masbate, Negros and elsewhere in the archipelago.

To the inexperienced hunters who are inclined to try to bring them down my advice is "Don't!"

Few indeed are the men who have killed so much as a single specimen of the tamarau of Mindoro. It is a small jungle-inhabiting ruminant. Its color, when adult, is precisely that of the carabao. It is, however, a much smaller and more active animal. The bulls lose no opportunity to attack carabaos, both domesticated and wild, and in spite of their own inferior size kill them with apparent ease.

The tamarau is extremely muscular and when it charges, which it is p.r.o.ne to do on very slight provocation, bores a hole through the jungle vegetation, coming on with the speed and recklessness of a rhinoceros. Under such conditions it is excessively hard to stop, and when it pushes its charge home, woe be to the unlucky hunter. With rare exceptions it attacks when wounded if it so much as catches sight of a human being. Even when unmolested it not infrequently charges, without warning, when one gets unduly near. It feeds at night, and never lolls around in the water as does the carabao.

At the time I first came to the Philippines to collect natural history specimens in 1887, this animal was known only from travellers'

tales and from what purported to be a stuffed individual in the Dominican museum. It was certainly stuffed, being about as shapely as a kerosene barrel. Its skin looked so exactly like that of a carabao that uncharitable persons had suggested that it was an artifact.

At this time the most absurd tales about the tamarau were in circulation. I was solemnly a.s.sured by one group of persons, who claimed to have seen it, that it had only one horn which grew out of the top of its head. Others were certain that it had two horns and but a single eye.

We did not antic.i.p.ate the good fortune of discovering either a unicorn or a cyclops, but thought that there must be something behind all of these remarkable stories.

After undergoing many hardships and performing much hard work, our party succeeded in taking five individuals, the first ever killed and properly preserved.

The best way to hunt these wary and dangerous animals is to pick up a fresh trail early in the morning along some water course where they come to drink during the night, and follow it as noiselessly as possible. One is liable to jump the game at any moment. I shall never forget my astonishment when, on climbing up a steep river bank and diving into a tunnel through runo gra.s.s, I nearly fell over an old bull. Ordinarily, however, no such luck awaits one. It is frequently necessary to trail the quarry five or ten miles before one comes up with it, and then the usual reward, after crawling through underbrush and wriggling along on the ground, bitten by ants and mosquitoes, torn by thorns and covered with pestiferous land leeches, is to hear a terrific crash in the brush and never so much as catch a glimpse of the animal which makes it. The tamarau sleeps during the day, almost invariably lying down in the densest of jungle growth, facing back upon its own trail. Furthermore, it is uncommonly likely to put a bend in that trail before lying down, so that while one is still a mile or two from it by the line which it followed, it may in reality be not more than fifty or a hundred yards away.

A very skilful tracker is necessary if one is to have much hope of success, and one should not fire, even after the game is in sight, unless he can get a brain shot or can be certain of breaking the spinal column; otherwise, he endangers his own life by shooting, if the tamarau is at moderately close quarters.

I believe that no other ruminant is harder to kill outright. Certainly there is no other approximating the tamarau in size which is so tough. I refrain from chronicling my own experiences, as I am certain that my statements would not be believed, and prefer to leave hunters to find out for themselves how much shooting it takes to put one of these extraordinary beasts out of commission.

There is one place in Mindoro called Canturai, where tamarau may be taken with comparative ease. It was described to me, in Spanish days, as an extensive open area with a conical hill near its centre, and I was told that by burning the gra.s.s and sleeping on the hill one could readily get early morning shots at tamarau which came out to lick up the ashes.

But various other stories had also been told me, and one and all had proved false. I had dug pitfalls for the wary beasts in vain. I had perched in trees, devoured by mosquitoes, and with hard branches cutting into my flesh, waiting for some pugnacious bull to come out and fight a tame carabao fastened at a convenient distance from my hiding place, all to no purpose. Under such conditions a tamarau once came and bellowed around in the bushes, but did not show himself. I had heard tales of men who rode tamarau down on horseback and lanced them, and these yarns I knew to be false. So I never took the trouble to look up the Canturai story, worse luck, for it proved to be true.

American soldiers occupied Mindoro for years before one of them succeeded in killing a tamarau. Finally a party of officers went to Canturai and the first morning they shot seven! Various other persons who have since gone there have had extraordinary luck, although several have narrowly escaped being killed, owing to their folly in following wounded animals into the cogon gra.s.s.

A tamarau pursued under such circ.u.mstances will almost invariably back off at right angles to its own trail, wait for its pursuers to come up, and charge them, giving them no time to fire.

Young calves are as wild as their parents, and I am credibly informed will often endeavour to attack female carabaos if an attempt is made to get them to regard these animals in the light of foster mothers.

It is a curious fact that calves, and in fact young animals up to a year or more of age, are of a light reddish colour closely resembling that of some Jersey cattle. Their coats turn dark later on. Their horns, too, are at first circular in cross-section. Later they become triangular.