NEGROS, One of the Philippine Island..., to the Visayas It lies between the islands of Pa nay and Cebfl. It is separated from Panay and the small island of 1;nintartis on the northwest by the Strait of 1:unnanis, miles wide at the narrowest, and from tebn on the east by the Strait of Ta ibln, from (1 to 22 miles wide (Map: Philippine Islands, flit the north the island borders on the Visayan Sea, and on the southwest and south it is washed by the Sulu Sea, which to the southeast separates by a distance of :30 miles from Alindanao. The island is but very in shape. Its is 134 miles, and its breadth 20 miles, increased near the southern end to :34 miles by a broad, rounded peninsula, from the western coast. Its area is as 4839 miles. a number of small de pendent islets, the area is 4851 miles. It ranks fourth in size the Philippine Islands.
The coasts are clear and steep, but very little indented, and afford no harbors except a few sheltered hy the small adjacent is lands. The whole interior consists of a moun tainous plateau with a central the entire of the island and it into two distinct halves. its two political divisions. The active volcano of or Malaspina. situated in the north central part of the island, is 8192 feet The terminate, at the north in the remark able isolated peak Solitario, The two slopes are eroded into numerous lateral valleys watered by short and simple streams, the on the western slope. In the southern are two remarkable mountain lakes, the six miles long. The mountains of the interior are etwered with vast forests of vaivable timber. which the teak is prominent. The
soil is everywhere fertile and well watered, and is the principal occupation. The chief prodnets are cacao of an excellent hemp, coffee, rice, tobacco. cotton. and cereals. The fisheries are next in importance to and also receives considerable attention, number, of horses, earaboos. and raised.
The chief manufactures are abaea. calm s:: -k-. and the last-named manu facture hydraulic and steam DM ch inery. Aleans of communication are very poor. vessel, are almost the only means of communication between the towns. Tin-se are nearly all situated on the coast. the interior a wilderness. The population of the isl and in 1901 Was estimated at 372.000. The pre race is the Visayan. and the Visayan is the spoken. The forests of the interior are inhabited by roaming savages. Po litically the island is divided int() the two prov inces of Negros u tecidental and Negros ltriental, whose areas, respectively, are 3112 and 1742 square miles, and whose populations are 231.000 and 141,1)111). The capital of time former is Iod, and of the latter Dumagnete. The two old provinces were continued under civil government by the Philippine Commission Act of February I;, 1901. Some resistance was offered to the authority of the United States by bands of natives, who kept _American troops actively en gaged on the island during the campaigns of 11490 and 1¶100.. Consult Apuntes dc la Isla de (Manila.