The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-12-18
SUNKEN RIVER
\ TO Be SURVEYED
Government Will Explore Subter-
I'll ranean Stream In Phil
ippines.

Manila, Dec. 16.-The government
has decided to make a complete ex-
ploration and survey of the sunken
river in Palawan for the purpose of
bringing it to public notice as a show
place for tourists. Some time during
the present month a party that will
include a surveyor and assistant, q
geologist and photographer, will go
to Palawan for the purpose of making
a complete examination of the subter-
ranean river. The party is being or
ganized by Secretary Elliott, who will
probably accompany them to st. Paul
Bay and personally direct the starting
of the work. How long it will re-
quire to explore, survey chart and
photograph the great cave and the
river that runs through it is not GER
Tain because their extent is not
known. 1t is the intention to do the
work very thoroughly to obtain COM
plete and accurate details as to the
mysterious stream and to bring one of
the great natural wonders of the
Orient into reach of the great travel
ing public.
The sunken river is without a def
mite name. but it is generally called
after the mountain that covers it and
the bay into which it empties-St.
Paul. The bay and mountain are sup
posed to have been named by an early
English navigator. but there is also a
contention that these names merely
represent a translation of the title as
conferred upon them in Spanish and
by Spanish explorers. They lie on the
China Sea side of Palawan and in
St Paul Bay is really not bay, but a
somewhat extensive circular indenta-
ton of the coast of Palawan and has
very wide western exposure. This
openness makes a landing very diff
cult in uncertain weather. The inner
rim of the bay is very rugged, espe-
cially near the mountain, from the
base of which flows the sunken river.
Between two giant shoulders of rock
there stretches a short beach Of coral
sand and back of this is a small la
COON which holds the waters of the
river before they trickle across the
white beach itno the sea. Local ira
dition says a huge crocodile guards
the lagoon, but as far as is known it
has never been seen by any of the
Americans who have visitcc
place.
The entrance to the sunken river is
through low rate of jagged rock, but
within a short distance the cave wild
ems into a great chamber. Then in
succession come a series of chambers
and tunnels. many of them strikingly
pretty in coloring, all of them fantas-
tic in design. Thousands of birds,
chiefly a species of swallow, occupy
the chambers, and from stone ceilings
hang hundreds of bats. The current
in the river is generally quite swift,
varying with the rainfall, by which
it is fed from some point in the in
terror of Palawan.
The first American to enter the
mystic river was the late Gov. Miller
of Palawan. An old Moro told him of
its existence and said it had for years
been used as a retreat for pirates and
other free-booters. The Moro agreed
to guide him to the river and pilot
him through its black recesses, and
did so. But Miller had only candles
to furnish light and his exploratory
work was necessarily incomplete.
He assembled the river for a distance
estimated at five miles and marked
the walls of the main channel for the
guidance of other visitors. He sub
sequently led Secretary Worcester in
to the river, and last year Gov.-Gen.
------7------