ELECTRICITY AND LOST TREASURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6261, 10 December 1881, Page 7

ELECTRICITY AND LOST TREASURE.

To the systematic treasure-seeker a hopeful prospect is opened out by an electrical achievement lately reported from the Uniterl States. It wonlil appear that, during the summer of 1543, the schooner Vermilion, laden with copper bars, foundered in Lake Erie during a heavy gale of wind, Ilur cargo was valued at GO.OOOdoIs., and its owners spared no pains or expense to recover it, but in vain. The Vermilion had gone down in the deepest part o£ the lake, and, after several fruitless attempt 3 to discover her whereabouts, the search for her was abandoned as hopeless. Thirty-eightycars had elapsed since her loss, when an Krie boat, provided with an electrical apparatus for 'lie detection of metal substances, was cruising about the lake one fine morning. Suddenly the person in charge of the machine observed unmistakable indications denoting the presence of metal beneath the surface of the water over which the boat was at that time passing. The bearings of the spot were at once taken, and recently a couple of divers were conveyed thither and lowered into the lake. They alighted on the deck of thesubmerged schooner, and succeeded in penetrating into its hold, whence they extracted and brought to the surface one of the long missing copper bars. The entire cargo has since been recovered. After this successful feat, who can doubt that it is reserved to electricity to solve all the old-standing mysteries of sunken Spanish and Dutch galleons, British treasure ships, and piratical hoards that have defied mere human ingenuity and perseverance for so many years past ?