BURIED TREASURE

Western Star, 22 August 1924, Page 4

BURIED TREASURE

'Treasure-seeking is a subject that holds a- never-ending fascination for most of us, and has always, been a favorite themei with the writers of romance—perhaps Stevenson’s immortal story is the mostcnduring and alluring of all tales, that still delight old and young. And who is too old to he roused and thrilled hv accounts of hidden treasure, whether under the sea or buried in lonely tropic isles —or hidden gullies, sunken galleons, buccaneer’s and pirates, and the walking of the plank?

Countless fortunes lie on the senfloor, for the ocean-bed is strewn with wrecks mid treasure, and if ever we are able to explore the deeps, mankind will be astounded at the revelation. It is probable that many of the most wonderful ;stories of sunken treasure are hut legends, hut one need go no farther back than the late war for reality. Enough substantial stuff was sent below during that long-drawn conflict to make a nation prosperous for many a day.

Somewhere in the Pacific is a little island where the pirates stored their loot. A party'of adventurers that went in search <of it, believing they had unearthed the secret of an old chart, was never heard of again.

An Australian miner spent part of his life in the bush trying to re-find a mine his partner found and died in describing. But he never succeeded, and, .eventually, the bushmen stumbled on bis skeleton.

A party of French scientists narrowly escaped death from thirst in the Sahara seeking traces of a lost caravan of precious stones that' never readied Timbuctoo and was supposed to have been overwhelmed by a sandstorm, lost its tracks, and missed the wells.

Many an expedition lias sought the famed mines of King Solomon. The wonderful' platinum nine, said to have been discovered in 1893 by a German doctor, who died of exhaustion- on emerging from the. Kalahari . desert, has never been traced again, though at least two parties have come to grief in further search and several Military secret trackers have, never relumed. The Africander still believes in the “cave of gloaming gold” that was described by an excited Kaffir in tlie Krugemlorp; and in the Grange Hiver country a Boer family have sought for years for a parcel of diamonds handed hastily to one of their ancestors by an Englishman flying from pursuing justice, and supposed to have been (secreted in ail ant-heap in the dusk The Boer, finding the packet 'contained many big stones, and leaving the . mounted police, hid it and forgot the place. Somewhere in Western China there is believed to he a buried temple wlieie the Jlauchu'emperor:* of the old dynas-

ties stored their precious stones, manuscripts, and other treasures in times oi trouble. If the Chinese know of its exact whereabouts they have kept the secret well among themselves, though many furtive searches have been made by others, both European and Burnt bandits, and more than one inquisitivo head has been chopped off —pour eneourager les autres!