Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 15.djvu/805

PHILIPPIANS. however, as to the reasonableness of either line of argument, it is quite clear that the passage regarding the variant preachers in Rome (i. 14-18), with its bearing upon the state of the Roman Church when the Apostle wrote his letter to it, must be fully understood before the question of the date of this Philippian letter can be finally settled. To this study is being directed to-day.

. Besides the standard New Testament introductions, consult the following commentaries and discussions: Klöpper (Gotha, 1893); Lightfoot (London, 1894); Haupt, in Meyer-Kommentar (Göttingen, 1897); Lipsius, in Holtzmann Hand-Kommentar (Freiburg, 1892); Moule, in Cambridge Bible for Schools (Cambridge, 1893); id., Philippian Studies (London, 1897); Vincent, in International Critical Commentary (New York, 1897) ; Baur, Paulus (Eng. trans., Edinburgh, 1873-75); Spitta, Zur Geschichte des Urchristentums (Göttingen, 1893); Clemen, Die Einheitlichkeit der paulinischen Briefe (Göttingen, 1894); Gifford, The Incarnation (New York, 1897); Holsten, Paulinische Theologie (Berlin, 1898).  PHILIPPICS. See ;.  PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. An archipelago forming the most northern group of islands in the Malayan or Eastern Archipelago. It lies wholly within the tropics. The land surface extends between latitudes 21° 10′ and 4° 40′ N., 1150 statute miles; the east and west limits are longitude 116° 40′ and 126° 34′ E., making about 650 miles. The most northern land in the Philippines is Y'Ami Island, of the Batanes group; the most southern is Balut Island, of the Sarangani Islands, south of Mindanao; the most western is Balabac Island, north of Borneo; and the most eastern is Sancó Point, on the east coast of Mindanao. The archipelago is bounded on the north and west by the China Sea, on the east by the Pacific Ocean, and on the south by the Sea of Celebes and the coastal waters of Borneo. It is 93 miles distant from foreign territory on the north (Formosa); 31 miles from Balambangan, an island near Borneo, on the south; 510 miles from the Pelew group (German) on the east, and 515 miles from Cochin-China (French) on the west.

The archipelago numbers about 1600 islands, most of them very small, and having altogether about 11,500 miles of coast line. Two of them, Mindanao and Luzon, are, however, classed among the larger islands of the world, and eleven islands, Luzon, Mindanao, Samar, Panay, Negros, Palawan (Paragua), Mindoro, Leyte, Cebú, Masbate, and Bohol, are of primary geographical importance. The others are mainly dependent islands or islets along the coast of the large islands or subordinate archipelagoes like the Sulu Islands. The area of the total land surface is computed at 127,853 square miles, or a little larger than the New England States, New York, and New Jersey together. Mindanao (45,559 square miles) and Luzon (43,075 square miles) comprise about seven-tenths of the total land surface, the area of the other leading islands being: Samar, 5198 square miles; Negros, 4839; Panay, 4752; Palawan, 4368; Mindoro, 4050; Leyte, 3872; Cebú, 1668; Bohol, 1400; and Masbate, 1230. The total water surface within the limits occupied by the archipelago is 705,115 square miles.

. This immense labyrinth of islands forms that part of a vast submarine plateau which has emerged above the ocean. The surrounding waters are shallow, for the most part not over 200 feet in depth, showing that the wide plateau on which the islands stand nearly approaches the surface. But strewn here and there over the sea floor are troughs and hollows and wide depressions, particularly to the west of Luzon and Mindanao, where greater depths are found. There is nothing approaching oceanic depths till the eastern edge of the submarine plateau descends to the Pacific deeps from 100 to 300 miles east of the archipelago. In the south three lines of islands stretch like isthmuses between the main archipelago and the southern lands. In the northwest is the most regular and best developed of these isthmuses, stretching from Mindoro to North Borneo, the long, narrow island of Palawan forming more than half its extent. In the centre the Sulu Archipelago connects the western terminus of Mindanao with the northeastern point of Borneo; and in the southwest the great peninsula of Celebes with the Sanguir Archipelago and other islands forms another isthmus, sweeping around to the south of Mindanao. These ridges are extended throughout the archipelago in the form of mountain ranges, from south to north, and form a large part of its relief. From the southern coast of Mindanao to the north of Luzon the mountains are disposed in a line with or parallel to the southern isthmuses. The whole interior is essentially mountainous, the Cordilleras extending north and south, their highest peaks ranging from 3720 to 10,312 feet (Apo in Mindanao), with outliers and ramifications partly filling the gaps between the ranges. Narrow plains occur between the mountains and wider ones where the river valleys broaden near the coast, and are enriched with alluvial deposits. Mountains are the backbone of all the islands, though in Leyte there are no mountains of special prominence. Three ranges in Luzon and four in Mindanao are the dominating features in the topography of those largest islands. The wider plains are in the basins of the larger rivers of Mindanao and Luzon. Owing to the predominance of mountains, the area of tillable lands is not believed to be one-third of the total area.  . In the smaller and narrower islands the mountain chain which is the backbone of each island is the great central water-parting, streams flowing to the sea on either side of it in short, straight courses. Mindoro, for example, has about 60 independent little rivers. The drainage of the larger islands is more complicated, the parallel arrangement of the mountain chains giving space for the development of considerable streams. Among them is the (q.v.), with a drainage basin of 10,000 square miles, or much more than one-third of Luzon. All the interior waters of Northeastern Luzon are tributary to the Cagayan, reaching the China Sea on the north coast of the island. All the interior waters of Central Luzon, south of the Cagayan basin, are included in the system of the Rio Grande de la Pampanga, which empties through a wide delta into Manila Bay. The mountains are so near the sea in East Luzon that the rivers of that coast are of small importance excepting the Bicol in the southeast, which floats small vessels; but in the northwest the