The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-06-14
BURROWS OF A MAN MOLE.


Mysterious Doings In u Gulch Few Miles
From san Francisco.
Scarce Ii miles from San Francisco, half
nidden in the foliage of surrounding trees,
iestling behind the fir crowned ridges and
Ocky canyons of grim Tamalpais, are the
w scattered rauchhouses, which, with
re ubiquitous saloon, constitute the little
illage of Larkspur. The road runs along
the bottom of the canyon, almost hidden
by the overhanging redwood trees, till 1t
merges into mere cattle trail This wild
canyon is known locally as Baltimore gulch.
For five years at least, as vouched for by
actual observation, an aged human mole. in
the still watches of the night, has silently
burrowed and delved in the rich brown
earth until the sides of the canyon are liter
ally honeycomhed with his tunnels and
caverns. His work ia carried on always by
night, either by the light of the moon or by
the will-o'-the-wisplke flicker of a rusty
lantern. These caves mount up into the
hundreds, always near the roots of a tree,
some fully Is feet in circumference and 10
feet deep. The bigger holes are carefully
fenced around with long redwood poles,
around which dead ferns and grass are
twisted, and at the bottom is n cross. Other
and smaller holes or caves under the roots
of giant redwoods are unfenced, but filled
in with loose earth and heaps of dead brush
These, too, contain the mystic cross-al-
ways the cross.
For five long years this man gopher has
been digging and toiling. Sometimes work
ing for several days continuously, at other
times only appearing at long intervals, no.
body has ever seen him at work, and what
he hopes to find nobody knows, for no one
has watched him or listened to his mid
night mutterings.
A visit to the scene of these mysterious
holes was made by an Examiner CORE
spondent. 1t was hard trip through the
dense chaparral and closely growing trees.
Hundred Of the filled in excavations were
visible, of all shapes and sizes and in every
position. Near one on the freshly dug earth
footprints were visible, by another an old
sieve was found, nodded with age and ex-
posture. Poles stripped of bark and masses
of dead brush were seen piled around the
remains of former excavations.
Henry Collins, resident of Sausalto
and a keen sportsman, has explored the
gulch thoroughly and has often pondered
over the meaning of the holes, of whose ex-
istence he will testify to. Nobody knows
where the mysterious deliver comes from or
where he goes when his nights toll is over.
Few have seen him come or go, and those
that have described him as a wrinkled,
bent and weather beaten old man, with
long white hair and beard. 1t is hard to
find the exact location of these places I'M
less one Stumbled ON them by accident, for
though they cover vast amount of terri
tory they are hidden by the dense vegeta-
ton. Only few days ago his light was
seen wandering about the hill.
The labor and expense consequent to re-
move such tons of earth alone and single
handed, as he has done, and the care and
precision with which the poles are set
around the freshly dug holes, withthe cross
always in the bottom, all done in the damp
ness and darkness of night, suggest that
there is some treasure worth hunting for.
About six years ago man driven crazy
with cancer on the brain wandered into the
mountainous region around Tamalpais, and
his body was finally found by campers, who
had lost their way, lying in the roots of
large redwood tree. He had come from
Lodi and Coroner Eden maintains he was
poor, but more that one man tells a story
of his wandering in there with s250OO,
which he must have buried, or it may yet
be lying in some rotting sack or scattered
in careless profusion amid the rankly grow
ing heritage.
This may, then be the secret of the hui
man gophers strange work, but the ques-
ton still remains unanswered, Why the
crossi-San Francisco Examiner.