The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1913-11-06

There must he stairs" answered
There must he way. The latitude
and longitude agree with vonr ances
tors description and make no doubt
we shall chance upon them"
So we tramped along, searching the
shore and sea and finding nothing
After perhaps an hours monotonous
going, when we had traversed about
third of the distance of the island.
we rounded a projection OF the cliff
and there before us rose the stairsl
What we saw was gigantic stair
way. irregular. but made of huge
blocks of rough hewn stone. not coral
rock. but harder stone OF tirmer tex
ture, like granite almost. ! was not
ia amiliar with the stone either There
was no symmetry about it, some of the
stones rose perhaps three feet and 9th
ers not more than as many inches. but
stairs they certainly were and they
surely had been made by man. and the
stones were most carefully fitted. be-
ing laid up without mortar. the sur
faces SO close that could scarce thrust
knife blade between. The huge
blocks were of monstrous size. too,
much too great in bulk and weight to
be handled by any primitive mechani.
cal means | thought never could
conceive how natives or primitive men
could have shaped them. moved them
and finally laid them up in the form
of stairs.
Nor did the stairs alone awaken our
amazement and quicken our curiosity
They ended in a circing belt Of sand.
here little wider than elsewhere At
the bottom on either side two gigan-
tic statues or busts of stone had been
erected Their bases were buried in
the sand. and they rose to quite twice
my height above and am good six
feet and more tall These stones were
carved into the rough yet not unreal
likenesses of human faces.
Why we had not discovered these
stairs from seaward was because they
didn't come squarely down to the wa
ter's edge at right angles to the wall,
but lay. as it We're. parallel to niche
within the wall so that they were
somewhat sheltered from observation
from the sea.
We broke upon them suddenly, there
fore. Mistress Lucy clutched my arm.
"The giant stairway" she cried in
amazement
1T is indeed" said, lust as it was
set forth in the parchment"
"And the great stone faces" she add
ed in a voice in which there was
touch Of awe.
Let us go nearer and ascend the
stairs" said, taking her hand and
leading the way, and she was so pre-
occupied that she did not notice.
l observed as we approached the
stairs that the rock had been worn
smooth by the wind and weather, or
maybe by the passing of many feet
and were quite practicable for ascent.
The angle at which they rose was
steep too
The ascent was easy enough for me,
but hard for her, and several times
made bold to lift her up the higher
steps, which she suffered without COM
planning She told me long afterward
that my manner toward her then and
thereafter had been perfect.
When we at last reached the top
before us lay a broad pathway rudely
paved with the same hard stone This
road led straight into the interior of
the island of which we could see as
yet nothing. because the wall here
abouts was covered with dense, lux
urious vegetation. Progress was diff
cult even in the pathway 1t would
have been impossible in some places
but for my heavy cutlass with which
l cut path where the place had be-
which had forced their way through
the cracks, overturning and breaking
the heavy fagstones and blocking up
the path. which 1t was evident had
not been traversed for generations,
perhaps not since the old buccaneer
himself had walked along it beneath
the spreading trees.
For perhaps mile we pursued our
journey across the top of the wall,
winding In and out among the trees
through the jungle, the path evidently
seeking the most level direction. for
the top of the wall was very much
broken and irregular.
At last we came to an open spot on
the inner edge overlooking the whole
island, and before US lay such pic
ture as few eyes. at least of our race,
had ever looked upon. The wall ended
abruptly and fell on the inner or land
ward side as precipitously as it rose
outwardly and to sea ward. Before US
! lay most enhancing valley, perhaps
three or four miles across and maybe
half as long again in the other direc-
tion and which was walled about on
every hand. 1t was sunk beneath this
wall crest for perhaps 100 feet or more.
/ In the center of the valley the land
rose little higher than the island
wall in very considerable hill, tree
crowned on the slopes, but largely bare
on the crest Through the valley ran
brook, which ended in little lake,
which | suspected had some subter-