The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1897-08-01

failing seMF1x-2ou 10 CasHs7>y. ~ oS@a@A
iris treasure the temple was plurdered
no ,@ss than Twelve times. and thousands
Of rsr we're slaughtered
TIE astounding disclosure Il new ra6e
bv Prof. Alexander Hill. one Of the most
reputable mining experts n tie world
tha. the nssnes which proauced sach fa5r-
log. amounts Of gold are stisl being crude
In worked, after yielding tneir treasures
for three anc perhaps four thousand
Years. They are near the town OF Cor
dora- ia Spasn- King Solomon also CO
,a.nsa gold from mines In the northern
part Of Galic.a, On the hanks OF the River
Gil. alse ia spain Their exploration hss
long been abandoned on account OF the
absence Of facilities for reaching the
dep.hs. and they have gradually disap-
psared from the memory Of man. United
States Consul J. Harmony has recently
inspected them and reports that an En-
giisn company Is preparing 70 reopen
them Even today" he says. "a COM
pensative quantity Of gold Ii washed from
these old deposits on the banks o. the
river by the peasant women. who stand
In the shallow places and wash the gold
they have collected in wooden bowls. In
the working Of which they have become
experts"
1t IL believed that Hiram. king Of Tyre.
was the real finder OF these treasures. and
that he communicated the discovery 10
Solomon. who At once proceeded TO ex-
tract the metal. What Is now Southern
Spain was then the richest and most val
ued Of the Phoenician possessions. Those
must have been glorious days. because it
Is related that even the ships Of the
Phoenscians carried silver anchors. and /.
is related in the Book of Kings that 50
plentiful was gold. and silver so common.
that silver was accounted nothing"
The source OF solomon's wealth was
unknown even TO Daniel. and the traces
appeared 70 have been entirely lost There
can be no doub,-because the workings
show it--.hat these mines have been ex-
tensively worked, and the absence of any
record for hundreds OF years is proof that
they were worked at no recent day. Il is
not a new theory that King Solomon's
mines were in Spain. because the CONNER
c.al intercourse between the nations Of the
Mediterranean made that probable con-
clusion, and no other old workings are
known to exist within as easy access. OF
course. all material used in working the
mines has long ago decayed. but with one
wonderful exception. Down deep in the
gloomy caverns have been found water
wheels. evidently used by the ancient
miners for raising the water that washed
into the tunnels and filled the depths be-
tanks, one placed above the other until
the surface was reached. and there are
still fragments Of these tanks clinging to
the walls The wheels were made Of oak.
but their preservation Is due to a coating
OK copper. which Prof. Hin says it must
have taken many centuries TO have form
ed. The searehers have also found clay
lamps used by the workers thousands Of
years ago.
Three thousand years. thirty hundred
years. span the time between which the
miners who furnished gold FOR the temple
and the men who are now working for a
British syndicate, handled the same tools
Those caves were one thousand years old
when the Savior drove out the money
changers from tha, temple which had
taken the place Of that built by Solomon
Since they were first worked, Egypt. one
of the most wonderful centers of civiliza-
ton the world has seen, has arisen and
decayed. They had probably been for
gotten when Homer's poems were intro
duced into Greece. when the religion of
Buddha was introduced by Gautama into
India, before the beginning of authentic
chronology In Greece. by the time that
the great Assyrian empire was DESTROYED,
and when Rome was built.
And now they are to be opened again,
and in the place of the water-wheels will
be steam pumps. in place of clay lanterns
VIII &c electric lights. instead OF picks
will be diamond drills, and where, per-
haps, countless slaves toiled a mere hand
full of engineers Will renew an output
whose extent can only be guessed at.