Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1890-03-26
A STRANGE DISCOVERY.
BY CHARLES HOWARD sNN.

By CHARLES HOWARD SIM.
Last summer the schooner William
Haley, of Galveston, trading among the
West Indies, was becalmed near the Cult
Stream. The second day the captains
curiosity was aroused by strange float
ing mass, and he ordered the mate 10
take boat and examine it The mate
returned towing log, from which the
men had cut away the marine growth
which had made it seem at q distance
like a seamoDster. The captain ordered
it TO be hoisted TO the deck, declaring
that in forty years spent at sea he had
never found anything like it.
When laid on the deck it was seen 10
be lout twenty feet long and two feet
in diameter. 1t was Of some very hard,
dara colored wood, like palm, charred in
places, and worn and broken, cut and
torn. a5 if it had been whirled through
torrents and maelstroms for hundreds OF
years. The ends were pointed. aud five
bands of dark metel, like bronze. were
sunk in the wood, and the whole bore
evidence of having passed through in
tense heat. On closer examination tho
log was seen to consist of two parts, and
these bands were TO bind it together.
The captain had the band, cut. and in
the exact centre, fitted into a cavity, was
o round stone. eighteen inches in diane
ter The rest of'the wood was solid.
The captain. moro disappointed at this
result than he cared TO confess, picked
up he stone and was greatly astonished
at its lightness. Examining it more
closely, he remembered that when boy
on the old New Hampshire farm he used
to find hollow stones with crystals in
them-geodes, as lie afterward heard
them called. This was probably geode,
placed in this strange receptacle for some
unknown purpose. He carried it 10 his
cabin and put it into his chest
Two months later the old captain re-
turned to his cottage on Galveston Bay
and placed among his curiosities the
goede he had so strangely found in the
Gulf Stream One day he studied il
again and the sunlilht Glanced to fall
upon u narrow, irregular line.
Il declare. said the old man, lit looks
like as if this stone had been patched to-
gether!7
He struck ii with a hammer and it fell
apart and proved to be filed with small
pieces Of yelowish-brown wood. The
shell of the stone was about an inch
thick, studded over inside with thou
sands of garnet crystals 1t had been
broken into three parts and fastened to-
gether again with some sort of cement
which show ed plainly on the inside.
The old captain poured the pieces Of
wood on the table. They were perfectly
dry and hard. They seemed almost liho
strips Of bamboo aud were numbered and
covered with writin,. made by pricking
marks with some sharp instrument like
an awl. lie found the first piece of wood
AMI b gan to read, for It WAS in English.
The work Of dcciphcring the tiny dents
OIL the bits Of wood soon became the cap
tain's chief occupation lie copied each
sentence oil in his old og-book rs fast as
il was made out Five or six sentences
were about all his eyes would stand with
ont rest, so that il was long time be-
f re the narrative was at all complete.
The narrative runs as follows:
HEARTS OF THE ROCKIES.
About sept. II. 1886.
/ am an American, Thomas Parsons.
Of Machias, Me. / have no living rela-
tives. | write this in vast vaulled
chamber. hewn frvm The solid granite
by some prehistoric race. have been
for months a wanIerer in these subter.
rancan spaces, and now have contrived
a way TO send my message out 10 the
world that / shall probably never seq
aeain. If some miner, .nneling in tho
h ckies, come, upon aV~ulted chamLer,
with heaps of ancient weapons of bronze,
bars of gold and precious stones that nc
man may mum ber, let him give Christian
burial To the poor human bones that lie
in this horrible irea urc-house. He will
find all that is left OF my mortal frame
near the great ever-burning lamp, under
the dome of the central hall Tna, lamp
is fed from some reservoir Of natural
gas. 1t was lighted when came, months
ago For all ] know otherwise. it has
burned there for thousands of years.
The entrance to this sub-montane river
is in the Assiniboine Mountains, north
of the United States line. was a pros
pector there for several years, and ]
heard stories among The older Indians
that river greater than the Columbia
hal once flowed where the Rocky
Mountains now are; that the Great Spirit
had piled the mountains over it and
buried it deep underground. At last a
medicine man, whose life 1 had once
saved. told me that he knew how TO get
TO the river, and took me into cavern
in a deep gorge. Here we lived for a
week, exploring by means Of pine torches,
AMI at last found passage which ran
seadily downward This, the Indian
told me, was the path by which his an
cestors. who once lived in the middle OF
the earth. had found their way to the
light Of day.
thnk we were about three thousand
fee. below the entrance Of the cave, when
we began TO hear the sound OF roaring
waters. The sound increased until we
s.o,d byan underground river, of whose
width and depth we could form no idea.
The light Of our torches did not even re-
veal the height Of the roof overhead.
Nv guide told nc that this was the
mother Of all the rivers of the world.
No other person except himself knew OF
it. existence. 1t flowed from the end If
the North to the extreme South. 1t
grew ever warmer and warmer. There
was time when the people lived along
Its channel, and there were houses and
cities of the dead there and many strange
things. 1t was full Of fish Without eyes,
and they were good to eat If | could
helm him build raft lie would float with