Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1909-09-26

ure hidden so many years ago by that
merciless pirate. Capt. Kidd in Ches-
ter basin. Nova Scotia. The story OF
capt. Kids treasure is strange one
and has baffled the ingenuity OF man
for more than two centuries and yet
remains unsolyed.
About 200 years ago capt. Kidd on
one of his piratical cruises landed
at Oak Island, and there, ii is be-
lieyed. buried vast sums OF treasure.
consisting of gold and jewels. Thous-
ands upon thousands of dollars have
been spent IN vain attempts to re-
gain this hidden treasure. which is
estimated to be worth more than sl0.-
600 zoo, and the story of the workings
is deeply interesting. says the New
York Herald.
About the close of the eighteenth
century that part OF the country was
sparsely settled and the island in
question without an inhabitant. In
1895 three men Smith, McGinnis and
Vaughn-visited the island. and while
rambling over the western part of 1t
came to a spot of which theunusually
1 and strange condition at once attracted
Their attention. Ii had every appear
ance of having been cleared many
years before. Red clover and other
plants altogether foreign to the soil
were growing. Near the center stood
large oak tree with marks on the
! trunk One of the lower and larger
branches of this, the outer end OF
4 which had been sawed of. projected
directly over the center of deep
circular depression in the land aboct
\ thirteen feee in diameter. These and
other signs led the three men men
I toned to commence work soon after.
They started digging in the spot
where they had found the depression,
and as they got down they discovered
a well defined shaft. the walls of
which were hard and solid, and it is
said that in some places old picks
we're to be seen. while within the
I walls the earth was so soft that picks
were not required. On reaching a
depth of ten feet an oak plank was
struck. They kept on digging until
a depth of thirty feet was reached,
finding oak platforms at each ten feet.
At this point the earth proved too
heavy for them. Superstitious belief
were in full force in that part OF
the country at the time. and on this
account they were unable to get any
help to continue the work and were
obliged to abandon it.
After an interval of six or seven
years accounts of the wonderful dis
lcovery made at Oak Island had spread
all over the province, and a gold
seeking expedition was formed in
Truro, n. s. Work was at once
!, resumed, and the shaft was excavated
to a depth of ninety feet. Marks
were found every ten feet as before.
and an iron bar was frequently used
in taking soundings. At the ninety
f, foot mark fiat stone two feet long
and fourteen inches wide was dis
covered. On it were cut characters
which an expert read as follows: Ten
I feet below are 100000 pounds
buried" This gave the searchers re-
newed hope.
/ This was Saturday night Monday
morning when the men returned to
work the shaft was discovered full of
water. II was then decided to sink a
new shaft and to tunnel under ''tht
money pit" and to take the treasure
out from below. The pit was sunk
to depth of lilo feet. and just as
the workers thought that the treas
ure was theirs the water burst in on
them, and the men barely escaped
with their lives.
An examination was made of the
shaft and experts found it to be in
very unsafe condition. and il Wa
forthwith condemned. The pump vrs
withdrawn. and the shaft We abaa-
doned and work suspessc1. Thc
management were at their wits CT
and did not know what 10 = cr what
couse to surmount the ovcraowins
difficulty. However. It appears that in
the meantime some Iiaiifax men had
been interested. and entered into an
agreement TO clear out the money
pit and recover the treasure for a,