The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-01-26
TREASURES HIDDEN UNDER THE THAMES

If some of the things that have
 been fished out of the Thames river
 are a fair sample of the treasures
 resting in the mud at the bottom, it
 might pay some Yankee speculatOr to
 inance a plan for systematic search.
 Everything from a coin to statue
 has been recovered from the black
 waters, even the Great Seal of Eng
 and having found a resting place
 there. It was thrown there purposely
 by James II on the night he fled from
 Whitehall, but a fisherman accfden-
 tally brought it to light some while
 lfterward. and it was restored to the
 government.
 sThe largest object ever found in
 the Thames was a whale, which was
 taught near Blackwall Dock in 1890.
 This monstrous fish," says con
 temporary account, now reprinted in length and near 40 feet about, he is height more in than breadth and is matter of 50 Yum in Wight. He was first discovered near the Bouy of The More, where he was fired at by Kings .Yoath, so received some wound, and made toward the shore so com along by ye Hoop and beat himself upon ye sand, after that he was harpooned and taken, then bought by a Quacor."
 s One of the most ancient and, strangely enough. best preserved rel les was found In 1888. near Waterloo Bridge" says a historian, writing in ;he Globe. '"rhis Is a Celtic helmet of bronze. more than 20 centuries old The state of its preservation is marvellous. the ornamentation being almost as unworn, as when the hel- met was made. In 1856 a bronze shield of about the same date was wrested from the river mud near Bat Der of swords. spears and other wea- oons This shield Is the finest of its period in the world. It Is IA inches wide and 80 long. and somewhat S,.n. ns with arabity ref bronze is evident when we think of .he countless tides which swept over it, but were yet unable to destroy the metal. and 1t Is almost impos- sibls to realize that the owner of such only in the skins of wolves and other wild animals which were harbored in thousands by the mighty forests which covered all England.
 Near London Bridge, which has always proved a mine of buried treas ure. two small Roman statuettes were fonnd' in 1887. They are bronzes of Apollo and Mercury, unfortunately somewhat mutiiated and dented, but sufficiently we'll preserved to show tists. and probably famous sculptors of that day. It is possible that the early Christians, who were responsible for a good Ideal of damage of the kind. looked upon them as devils, and Thought that by defacing them and cutting off an arm here ana d leg there and casting them into the river they would deprive them of any power of evil. So many coins of bronze, silver and gold have been found in the. Thames that it would require . mighty tome to catalogue them. In 1S41 a number of gold coins were found by a laborer, who eventually sold them to a collector, l while some 25 years earlier a great quantity of angels and half-sovereigns minted in the reigns of Henry VII a small kind of waterspout. They were claim by the corporation, and | what happened to them is not known |
 "At Queenhithe the seal of Edward | the Confessor for the Port of Lon l don was brought to the surface by a | dredger in 1910. It Is of very thick | silver, in perfect condition and of most exquisitive workmanship. It was bought by a private gentleman. Not l at the end of his anchor a gold po- mander of the fifteenth century. Po- manders were worn on the girdie and contained scent
 "A great number of Roman relics have been found at different times and there are no doubt as many more | still hidden in the river bed. A pair of Roman sandals almost perfectly | preserved were discovered some years peror Hadrian, as we'll as a huge hand which may have belonged to the statue of which the emperor's head was part" '