Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-23

AANaN " WV ANbhAf AAN ~ Va II a. NAA
France. Honors were showered upon him.
He told how he had padded up this river
in his canoe. and down that, how he had
threaded his way through dense forests,
and fought with wild beasts as the blessed
st. Paul did at Ephesus, and with wilder
and more savage men; how az last he had
come to the shores OF the great salt sea, a
boundless ocean stretching ever and ever
westward; how he had tasted OF the water
and found It salt; how the Indians told
him of a people who came vice a year
TO their shores in great ships to trade for
furs; that these people were white and
wore their hair In a long tail behind. All
this, and much more. glibly fell from his
tongue a dozen times a day, and the king
and mobiles We'd with one another in their
haste and llberality to fit out a new ex-
petition under Champlain to complete the
discoveries and set up a claim to the land
and the ocean for the kingdom of France.
Much against his will, the 'discoverer'
forced by the king TO go with this
new expedition as its pilot and guide.
Champlain landed at Quebec. and almost
Immediately started on his quest for the
salt sea. Day after day he pushed his
little force through the wilderness, until
at last he came to a tribe of Indians,
who recognized dis guide.
Then came the end 1t was developed
that the guide had spent the winter with
these Indians. and had not been a mile
farther west. He had never seen the
salt seas, and the Indians themselves had
never heard Of any such sea within thou
sands Of leagues Of where they were.
Champlaln turned back toward Quebec,
and Nicholas Vignau, the great faker Of
the seventeenth century, quietly dropped
out OF sight.
Paul BoyntOn's Big Fake.
During the autumn of 1888 the news was
dashed over the country from New York
that a sea serpent had been killed I'm the
Caribbean sea in an expedition sent to that
part of\ the world by Captain Paul Boyn-
ton to gather marine cuTlosities. A letter
had been received by Boynton, purporting
to come from Prof. Munster, who had
charge OF the expedition, in which the
details of the killing of the serpent were
given, and from It the reports were sent
out. The New York newspapers contained
extended accounts Of the capture. The
scientists connected with the New York
museum Of natural history became inter-
ested, and raised a purse OF $4,000 with
which to purchase thei CATCHY
The story in brief was that the crew Of
the schooner Huntress, then cruising off
the Isle of Pines, were preparing to test
the merits of a spring torpedo gun on a
school of porpoises that were playing
astern. AS they were about to relieve the
spring, the porpoises became frightened and
darted away In all directions under the
waves. Then the head of a frightful mon
ster rose some five or six feet out OF the
water, moving in the direction Of the little
vessel. Those manning the gun were terror
stricken for a moment, but, regaininE their
courage the gun was sprung and the tor
pedo hit the water within a few feet of the
monster, exploding with terrific force and
stunning It,. Boynton enlisted some con-
federates and together had built a
mechanical sea serpent, shipped 1t
TO sea in sections, and returned
with it to New York. Newspapers
were filled with stories of the great sea
Prof, o. c. Marsh of the Smith
sonian institution, the gentleman who ex-
posed the Cardiff Giant fraud, read about
1t In Washington He had always been a
believer in the existence Of the monsters,
and here was proof that his theory about
them was correct. He Immediately went
to New York to see It, and his interest was
so great that instead of asking questions
or making himself known he mounted some
steps hat had been carelessly left near the
serpent's head and proceeded to examine
its mouth regardless of the remonstrances
of the attendants. Boyton saw him and
h~urriedly left the hall in search of his rep
resentative, whom he found on a lower
floor.
For heavens sake" he yelled, ''go up
stairs quick. Some fellows up there are
tearing the mischief out of that snakes
mouth"
After some persuasion Prof. Marsh was
induced to step down to the floor, but he
had seen the character of the monster He
made himself known and the manager,
knowing that 1t would be usles to attempt
to impose on the eminent gentleman,
trusted to his mercy and allowed him to
thoroughly examine the reptile. When he
had finished the examination he pronounced
1t wonderfully made and almost exactly in
a~ccordance~wi III his idea of the conforma-
ton of a sea serpent.
He promised not TO give the snap away,
on account of its cleverness, and when he
was interviewed later In the day by a news
paper man he said 1t was the most remark
able looking reptile he had ever seen.
After a season through the museums the
serpent began to wear out and was sold TO
a party who took 1t to the country fairs
before It finally fell to pieces and was left
to rot in the woods near Muncie, Ind.
The Moon Hoax.
When Sir John Herschel, in the year
1926, was sent on an astronomical expedl-
ton to the Cape OF Good Hope, he carried
with him a telescope of huge size, from
which great things were expected, and also
private instructions to the effect that what.
ever he accomplished was to be kept pro-
foundly secret until he Mould return. Con-
sequently, for a long time after his de,
parture no news whatever reached England
in regard to his doings in South Africa,
Here was the opportunity which gave birth
to a luminous idea, and one September
morning there appeared in the columns OF
the New York Sun a long article filled
with Information that was we'll calculated
to astonish the world.
The article stated that Sir John Herschel
with the help Of Sir David Brewster, had
devised certain apparatus for increasing
in a marvellous way the magnifying powel
Of the telescope, and the instruments EN-.
ployed were described In the utmost detail
So wonderful were the results obtained
that, when the great tube was turned upor
the moon, the surface OF that satellite wa,