Subterranean shafts

**By VINCENT H. GADDIS**

*about us, and we live and move to my belief in an*
*unknown world, a place where there are caves and*
*shadows and dwellers in twilight. It is possible*
*that man may sometimes return on the track of*
*evolution, and it is my belief that an awful lore*
*is not yet dead." — Arthur Machen*
THROUGHOUT the world there are mys-
terious shafts, caves and tunnels built or
inhabited by unknown beings who have
vanished into the mists of pre-history. These visi-
lems to the modern world that are bewildering
and baffling.
In Tibet there is a secret city, hidden in the
world's highest mountains, and built at the top
of a pit that drops deep into the earth; in Nova
Scotia there is a strange underground chamber
protected by ancient engineering so ingenious that
it has baffled the best salvage experts; in Mexico
the prehistoric Acapulco tunnel and the padre-
protected and sealed opening at Xilitla remain
unexplored.

South America, too, has its underground pas-
sages, linked with the long-lost and archaic Golden
City of Manoa and the disappearance of the ex-
plorer Col. Percy Fawcett. In the Ozark Moun-
tains of our country there is the story of the
"devil pit" concealed by rugged cliffs, while off
the coast of India, covered by the sea so long ago
that not even the incredibly aged records of that
hoary country contain reference to them, are
cities that apparently have been visited in modern
times by mysterious constructions unknown to
earth.

Behind these reports are implications and cor-
relations of data that point to startling suggestions.
There are spots on and under this planet that
present profound enigmas — the gravity-defying
vortexes in Oregon and California, for example,
that may well be caused by buried machinery
of ancient or extra-terrestrial origin — and the
writer feels certain that we are on the verge of
making some remarkable discoveries. Extensive
correspondence with well-known authorities and
explorers in America and England in recent
months has produced a wealth of astonishing in-
formation that would fill a book. As my time
permits, the material that can safely be made
public will be released.

The Tibetan Shaft
TN A remote region of northern Tibet, Theodore

* Illion, playwright and world-traveler, found a

mysterious shaft and an underground city devoted
to evil. He tells the story in his book, Darkness
Over Tibet (Rider and Co., London), which con-
tains a detailed account of his observations and
his almost-miraculous escape.

"The existence of an underground city in Tibet,"
he writes, "is occasionally hinted at by well-in-
formed people in the forbidden country, although
the stories are often extravagant and turn the
city, which I succeeded in entering, into a 'Mighty
Underground Empire inhabited by millions of
people.' Tibet becomes somewhat more accessible
as the years roll by, and I am confident that
eventually other explorers will confirm my de-
scription of . . . (this) city."

After receiving a letter of introduction and
directions from a native Tibetan occultist, Illion
found the city near the Sangpo Valley, twenty
miles from the nearest village. It is known as
the "City of the Initiates," and consists of seven
underground buildings that drop at least fourteen
stories below the surface, the tops of these sub-
surface constructions being level with the ground.
They are built around a shaft, the top of which
is surrounded by a wall four feet high and ten
yards in diameter.

The top of each building consists of a large
glass skylight that is level with the surface and
can be quickly covered. In front of each is a
narrow staircase going down to a heavy door.
The buildings are connected by tunnels, are easily
kept warm, and practically earthquake-proof.
Several hundred inhabitants are under the rule of
a Prince Mani Rimpotche, a tall aged Tibetan with

a white beard who speaks six languages, including
English, and is remarkably well-informed about
world affairs.

Illion learned that only one other westerner had
ever visited the city, and he had lived and died
there under a Tibetan name. Life in the city re-
sembles that of an ant-hill under the absolute con-
trol of its ruler. No one is permitted to leave the
city without permission, and every action of its
dwellers is rigidly regulated.

The-shaft itself appeared incredibly aged and
very deep. Stones weighing up to twenty pounds
were thrown in, but no sound reached Illion's ears.
His inquiries revealed that only a few of the high-
est initiates knew what was at the bottom, and
any other person who found out would die —
"there are such secrets"— with death automatical-
ly following the discovery.

This city is apparently the headquarters of a
widespread secret organization with agents scat-
tered throughout the Orient — perhaps even in the
west, according to additional information reaching
the writer recently. Illion's discovery of the con-
cealed evil nature of this city which poses as good,
his refusal to become an agent, his escape and the
uncanny nature of his pursuit are details that will
be found in his book.

It is hoped that additional observations may
be made by travelers in future years. The fact
that possession of this mysterious shaft is in evil
hands is very suggestive, and it is one of the
reasons why I feel that stories and doctrines com-
ing out of Tibet and apparently devoted to man-
kind's best interests must be carefully considered
before they are blindly accepted as truth.

The Oak Island Pit
CEVERAL months ago I wrote an article an
^ the famous so-called "money pit" on Oak
Island in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. It has been
generally believed that this amazing shaft and
underground chamber is the work of pirates, and
that it contains a treasure of fabulous value. The
story of how this shaft was accidentally discovered
in 1795 by three young men, and the long tale of
repeated attempts by salvage companies to solve
the problem of the sea-water tunnel system that
protects the chamber will be found in my original
article.

Briefly, here are the facts: At some remote
period a small army of workmen and a number
of vessels arrived at this small island in the bay.
No one knows who they were, where they came
from, how long ago they arrived, or what they
placed in the shaft. They sunk a shaft thirteen
feet in diameter and at a depth of ISO feet built
a large chamber of cement, iron and oak beams, at
least forty feet in height, on a seven-inch concrete
floor.

Something was placed in the chamber, which
was then sealed. In the meantime other workmen
were constructing a series of twisting tunnels to
the shaft from the sea. At least two tunnels are
definitely known to exist; there are likely others.
One of the tunnels was run to an inlet where a

150

AMAZING STORIES

huge artificial beach was made with tons and tons
of unidentified fiber, covered with gravel and soil,
so that it served as a vast sponge forcing water
into the tunnel regardless of low tides.

As the shaft was filled, obstructions of various
kinds — planks, fiber, concrete, putty, even char-
coal — were placed every ten feet. When the
shaft was filled, the tunnels were opened, and the
unknown workmen left the island never to return.
All attempts to sink shafts, therefore, and recover
the buried objects are frustrated by the water
coming in from the sea. There Is no way to
hold back the flood of water that comes in faster
than pumps can operate. No concealed shut-off
valves for the tunnels can be located. The best
salvage experts and engineers of modern times
have been unable to solve the problem.

After writing the article it occurred to me that
here was a mystery that went beyond the mere
attempt of pirates to conceal some stolen gold.
The matter of the inscribed stone found at the
00-foot level, for example. It was a flat piece of
quarried basalt, about three feet long by 16 inches
wide, covered with "peculiar characters which no-
body could decipher." Doubtless this inscription
was the key to the mystery, but it has disap-
peared, and no copy of the characters was ever
made. Pirates did not inscribe stones, mix con-
crete, build artificial beaches or sink shafts to such
incredible depths.

Then came a letter to the writer from Harold
T. Wilkins, world-famous authority on pirate
lore and prehistoric history (See Who's Who). Mr.
Wilkins wrote : "I have long theorised that the so-
called money pit in Nova Scotia is far from any
pirate-made pit, as no pirates, even if they were
military engineers, would excavate a pit over a
hundred feet deep. In Nova Scotia, at one of
more points, there are also the phenomena of
mysterious footprints in stone— in one case lead-
ing across what is now a swamp to a very queer
elevation."

After receiving this letter, I decided to make
further inquiries, and learned that other writers
suspect the prehistoric construction of this shaft
and chamber. Charles Driscoll, for example, in his
book Doubloons, suggests that it may date back
to an early and unknown colony of Scandinavians
who buried their accumulated wealth, attempted
to return to Europe, and were all lost at sea.
Realizing that his idea is far-fetched, he chal-
lenges the reader to think up a better explanation.
On the other hand, Dr. A. Hyatt Verrill (Lost
Treasures) writes: "It is obvious that whoever
placed the treasure at the bottom of that deep
pit on Oak Island, and deliberately flooded the
shaft, had no intentions of ever recovering it.
Whoever buried it there buried it for all time, to
be utterly beyond reach, and so far their efforts
have met with entire success."

There are other mysterious factors; in fact the
entire matter is utterly baffling and without a
clue. In 1894 the chamber was penetrated by a

drill, and when the drill was brought to the sur-
face a scrap of parchment the size of a pea, torn
from a large sheet, was found clinging to it. In
India ink were the characters "WI" or "VI" which,
as Driscoll remarks, "may be almost anything
in almost any language."

Then there is the fiber found in the shaft and
used in the artificial beach. According to T. D.
Barrett (True Tales of Buried Treasure), no bot-
anist has ever been able to identify it. It resem-
bles cocoanut fiber, and is apparently of tropical
origin. Nevertheless, thousands of tons of this
substance, shipload after shipload, was brought
here centuries ago to form a beach ISO feet long to
act as permanent protective reservoir.

The island itself is a mystery. It is one of
over 300 islands in the bay, yet it alone possesses
oak trees, red clover, and several other plants.
In early days the settlers believed it was haunted,
and there were many tales of strange lights, mys-
terious sounds, and even the disappearance of
several explorers. Today the island is riddled
with shafts, torn from dynamite explosions, and
the chamber, penetrated many times by drills, is
flooded with water. The latest idea is to excavate
the entire center of the island with modern ma-
chinery. It will cost $250,000, but a company
will probably be formed within the next few
years to make the attempt. Perhaps, then, Oak
Island will give up its long-held secret.

Mystery In Mexico
O ISING above the Pacific near Acapulco, Mexi-
co, is a sheer rocky cliff, protected from the
sea by jagged boulders that make a landing pos-
sible only by native canoe. In the face of this
cliff is an artificial tunnel, regarded with super-
stitious dread by the natives. Known as the "Cave
of the Pirates," it was obviously made by a pre-
historic, patient race, and since there are no
safe anchorage spots nearby it is doubtful that
pirates ever used it.

It has never been fully explored, and it appar-
ently goes back into the earth for an incredible
distance. The walls are remarkably smooth and
decorated with untranslated inscriptions and fig-
ures. Long delayed echoes reveal its astonishing
depth. It has been known to the Indians for
some years, but they avoid it and tell of strange
lights that they have observed near its mouth.
Although access to it is difficult, this man-made,
vast and unexplored ancient tunnel deserves in-
vestigation. Why it was constructed in such a
treacherous spot on a barren cliff is itself a mys-
tery.

On the road from Mexico City to Laredo, down
the Montezuma river valley, is the Indian town
of Tamazunchale. Twenty-five miles from this
town, on a rough side road, is Xilitla, where the
ruins of an old Spanish monastery lie surrounded
by a wall of masonry. On one side this wall is
built against the side of a cliff.

Some years ago an earthquake shook the vil-
lage and part of the ancient wall collapsed re-

NOTES ON SUBTERRANEAN SHAFTS

151

vealing a tunnel cut into the cliff. The side\* of
the tunnel bare mysterious inscriptions and figures
of birds, snakes and curious unknown animals.
The local Indians kept away from the passage,
but one day two Americans who were passing
through the village decided to explore it. Hours
later they emerged greatly excited and left the
town, stating that they would return. But they
never came back.

No one knows who these Americans were or
what they found. The padres, for reasons known
only to themselves, sealed the tunnel again by
rebuilding the wall. In more recent years they
have absolutely refused to permit exploration,
although they state that they have no knowledge
of what lies within — which is probably true. Only
time will reveal the answer.

The Ozark Legend
CINCE the Ozark region has already been re-
ferred to as the site of an underground shaft,
it is of interest to note that there exists an old
legend in various parts of Missouri and Arkansas
of a great hole in the ground, surrounded by great
cliffs, from which strange sounds, lights and odors
emerge. Known as the "devil pit," its location is
not known, although men of previous generations
claimed to have visited the place years ago. Ac-
cording to Vance Randolph (Osark Ghost Stories),
these old accounts state that "strange people live
on the escarpments, throw odd things into the
bottomless pit at night, particularly when the
moon if full . . . (and) there are tales of dark-
visaged foreigners traveling at night, who make
regular pilgrimages to the place from distant parts
of the country."

Fred Allsopp, in his Folklore of Romantic Ar-
kansas, also refers to this story. Although there
is a deep canyon with high walls called the
"devil's half acre" near Mena, Ark., the legend
is not known to the local inhabitants. It may be
added that Breadtray Mountain in Stone County,
Mo., is the scene of many reports of mysterious
phenomena, and Otto Ray burn (Ozark Country)
writes that "Breadtray has a legendary reputation
seldom paralleled." Judge Tom Moore (Mys-
terious Tales and Legends of the Ozarks) states
that persons who visit the mountain at night hear
sobs, groans and screams, and that his report
"does not come from second-hand information,
nor is it based on hearsay."

Also, the mysterious lights on a lonely stretch
of country road called the "devil's promenade"
in northeastern Oklahoma, fourteen miles from
Joplin, Mo., and five miles from Highway 66, are
famous. Anyone, on any clear night, can see
them, and repeated investigations have failed to
produce an explanation. Other strange things
have happened along this stretch of road, accord-
ing to Randolph.

The lights resemble automobile headlights with
dimmers on, vary from the size of an egg to that
of a washtub, and always travel in an easterly
direction. They appear in varying colors at vary-

ing heights, but never more than a few feet from
the road. Old-timers claim they were there fifty
years before the road was built and when the area
was a woods. When approached they usually
vanish or rise high into the air, and they are said
to radiate heat. When pursued they often react
as if guided intelligently.

The Indian Sea Enigma
CINCE 17S0 shipping masters in the Indian Ocean
^ and adjacent waters have been reporting their
observations of mysterious huge wheeled construc-
tions, luminous and slowly revolving, under, ris-
ing from, or entering the sea. Hundreds of these
reports have been published in the Marine Ob-
server, issued by the British Meteorological Office,
since 18S0. Although nautical journals have dis-
cussed the enigma at various times, very little
information about these observations has reached
the general public.

In 1935, the late Charles Fitzhugh Talman, Chief
Meteorologist of the U. S. Weather Bureau, in
commenting on the report of the steamer Talma
in 1929, wrote : "These tales that come to us year
after year from the Indian Ocean of luminous
wonders as weird as anything Poe-ever imagined"
cannot be explained by modem science. "The
whole business," he added, "is so astounding that
one wonders why no scientific expedition has yet
investigated it."

Details on a number of these reports will be
found in The Books of Charles Fort. Most signifi-
cant is the localized nature of these observations.
Moreover, a check of records reveals that a large
proportion of these appearances, limited as they
are to the Indian Ocean area, have been off the
western coast of India.

Beneath the sea in this region, according to
James Churchward (Children of Mu), lies "a
large area of submerged land with structures show-
ing thereon." This submerged land is of an oval
shape, with the Lacadive and Maldive Islands
lying within its boundaries. At several points both
north and south of these islands are regions of
very shallow water, crossed by channels of greater
depth, and on clear days when the surface of the
water is quiet and the sun is in the correct posi-
tion, the "imposing remains of ancient structures
are clearly to be seen."

Obviously this area Was once a part of India,
but no record of its submergence is mentioned in
Hindu history no matter how far one goes back.
The structures are of a very large size and indi-
cate a prehistoric civilization highly advanced.

Is there any relationship between these puzzling
ocean-dwelling wheels and this long-lost culture
of pre-history ? Where do these huge circular
structures come from, and where do they go?
What conceivable purpose do they have in sub-
merging below the Indian Ocean — and only in this
localized area? It is quite possible that the an-
swers to these questions, when they are known,
will be as astonishing and incredible as these re-
ports are to us today.