The Alaska daily empire., 1921-03-02
ADVENTURES OFF.
 TO FIND JU NCLE. DIAMOND FIELDS.
Explorers Start for Wilds of South America On
 Treasure Hunt.

NEW YORK, March 2. Two young Americans are enroute from this port for South America to search for vast store of wealth suppoged to lie in the chimney" of the diamond deposits of British Guiana. At Georgetown, the capital of the British possession. they will be joined by third adventuresome American who has outfitted at Paris
 Tho expedition is under the pat ronage of IIardvard University and the Smithsonian Institute of Wash ingtcn, for which it will carry or eeogra Dhical explorations. William J. LaVarre, Jr., Harvard graduate of 1919, heads the party and his fellow explorers are James M7cDon- ald Of Lima. Ohio, and Dudley Lewis. of Springfield, Mass They expect to spend more than year in the jungle.
 Besides an attempt to follow the scattered deposits of precious stones gcveral hundred miles through tangled reptile infested wilderness t5 their source, long known to exist some where in the hill country, but never discovered, the expedition will take observations of the abor- iginal inhabitants and geological fea- lures of the country, as well as capture specimens of native wild animals for the Smithsonian In- stitutc.
 Project Outlined.
 Before his departure on the BraZ- outlined details of the adventure some project. Though still in his twenties the young explorer has ac companied three expeditions to- South and Central America, in a difficult mission into the heart of the Andes.
 After provisions are provided at Georgetown the expedition will board a canoe houseboat with a crew of a dozen to twenty oarsmen and laborers, and begin it's journey u1 the. Essequibo River, passing out of the area settled by white men in 2 few days paddling. After that it will penetrate the tropical jungle on it's own resources.
 Establishing headquarters in theI prairie country ITO miles up thei Mazaruni River, which empties into ,he Essequibo, the diamond hunters l will begin work on the alluvial lands bordering streams on the east ern watershed of the Sierra Pa caraima Mountains which separate British Guiana from Venezuela.
 Rich Diamond Field.
 The area in which the expedition will operate has been known since he middle of the last century as a rich diamond field, although it's in accessibility and the prevalence of tropical diseases have served to dis prospecting by white men Thousands of carats of the gems, said to be as fine as any in the world however, are taken out annually by negro miners employing primi- tive methods.
 Somewhere near every spot where diamonds are found in con numbers there must be chimney, explained MT. LaVarre. There is no telling definitely where the Guiana chimney is located, but we mean to find it and are basing our expectations on more than spec ulation. Study of data collected by other explorers and prospectors, as well as my own observations, indi- cate it is within a certain area near the Venezuela border"
 He added that the quality of stones taken from the vicinity where his party will work points to ! chimney as fch or richer than ] hose of the South African diamond fields.
 Animals which will be taken for he Washington Geological Garden include tapers, anteaters, jaguars, md monkeys, as well as a variety If tropical birds
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