Page:Amazing Stories Volume 21 Number 06.djvu/150

150 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 charcoal — 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 90-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 nobody could decipher." Doubtless this inscription was the key to the mystery, but it has disappeared, and no copy of the characters was ever made. Pirates did not inscribe stones, mix concrete, 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 leading 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 challenges 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 surface 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 botanist has ever been able to identify it. It resembles 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 150 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, mysterious 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 machinery. 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.

ISING above the Pacific near Acapulco, Mexico, is a sheer rocky cliff, protected from the sea by jagged boulders that make a landing possible only by native canoe. In the face of this cliff is an artificial tunnel, regarded with superstitious dread by the natives. Known as the "Cave of the Pirates," it was obviously made by a prehistoric, 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 apparently goes back into the earth for an incredible distance. The walls are remarkably smooth and decorated with untranslated inscriptions and figures. 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 investigation. Why it was constructed in such a treacherous spot on a barren cliff is itself a mystery.

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 village and part of the ancient wall collapsed