Daily inter mountain., 1899-11-03
for the concealment of gold and other val-

Tor the cOnCealmenC or gOl0 ana Otner Val-
uables. Therefore it was place to be
dug into and shoveled about until the
treasures We're unearthed and put to some
practical use.
Digglngs We're begun on the hill before
the War of 1872. After England had OWL
ed up to having enough a squad of de-
serters from the British garrison at Cas-
tine settled near the Codhead, getting
their living by selling hay and muskrat
skins, and employing their spare time III
oVerhaullng the soil of the hill. In the
course of two years they had excavated
about q million feet of soil, thereby NOV
ing the entire hill some six feet nearer the
stream. Between 1916 and 1880 colony
!. of skunks took up homes in the loose
earth. from which the hunters derived
Isood income by selling the pelts. In 1880
/ Captain James Boyd, who had lately re-
turned from sea with a chest full of
English and copper coins. went out and
threw a handful of his wealth into every
fopen skunk hole he could find Three
weeks later his house was full of boarders
| who had come on to dig out the wealth
| which Captain Kidd had buried before he
went to Boston and gave himself up to
the hangman. BY throwing away about
SIS worth of copper currency Captain
Boyd was enabled to make nearly 500
| taking boarders.
l. Men with witch hazel and sweet apple
limbs came every year after this board
ling at Captain Boyd's and plying the pick
and spade until their hands We're sore
and their money was gone. During the
Civil war the innocent and much vexed
hill had short respite, but the Dor was
renewed with vigor in 1868. the miners
getting plenty of skunk pclts but never
finding the coin which they sought.
| The spring of 1872 was very stormy and
wet The waters of Half Moon Pond,
which find their way to the sea. emerge
from this pond between two steep hills.
While the slopes were wooded no freshet
could disturb them but when the trees
had been cut off for timber, and the
stumps had been rotted away the spring
rains often made landsldps that came
down and clogged the outlets. causing the
water in the pond to flow hack until the
outflow dug new channel. On the night
of May II, 1872, the slide Of the hill to the
south Of the outlet let so near the sum-
nit and came roaring and sliding down.
filing the valley SO feet deep with a mass
Of earth and powders. The pond emit
ted no water for four days. The floods
which poured in We're held back by the
dam Of dirt and swelled constantly until
the farmers along the shores of the pond
We're compelled TO move out, and houses
and barns We're lifted from their foun-
dations and went to call on their neigh
borS across the pond
On the morning Of May % a muddy lit
tie stream began to tricllle over the eartl
which had come down the hill. 1t flowed
gently and without noise for few min
utes digging channel for itself in the
mud. The stream grew bigger every min
ute. At first it was no bigger than a ie
from faucet. Five minutes later it was
as big around as water pail. In an
bother minute it was larger than a hogs
head and then the great mass Of mut
gave away as if it had been a fog, anc
150,0 900 cubic feet of water moved dOWr
fthe channel, uprooting trees, grinding
great stones to powder. and roaring st
loud that the noise Of the waters was
heard ten miles away. 1t kept withr
high banks for two miles, and then spread
out over the Half Moon marshes, sweep
= ing across the grass lands in bllows $
feet high. BY the time the food ha'
i reached the lower meadows it's fury wa
tspent, and the waters continued on to tn
sea without intlicting further damage.
A week after the stream had got rid o
it's congestion three men came up from
Northpcrt and applied to Captain Boy
for board, saying that they were goin.
to dig for riches in the Codhead. The,
went away with their picks and spade
early in the morning, but returned in tW
hours and reported that they could no
find the hill. Captain Boyd volunteered
to show them the place, but when n
reached the intervale he found that tn
entire hill had been washed away in tn
flood leaving a fiat surface on a leve
with the marshes. Half of the resident
still believe that more than 81 ,O00, 600 i
gold and silver was washed out to Sc
| by the flood The other half hae neVe
ceased TO lament the killing of man
valuable skunks. Before the flood tn
trappers used to take 5000 worth of pelt