GUARDED GOLD

Shannon News, 4 December 1925, Page 2

GUARDED GOLD

+ •MELLIDNS HOARDED TJNDERGROUNI). TREASURE OF THE THREE PANCAKES. Prom Peru comes a story that the latest of the many expeditions sent out to search for the treasure of the Tres Tr.rtillas has failed to return and is presumably lost.- The Tres Tortillas (Pancakes) are three flat-topped hills which stand over the head water* of .the River Secure, which rises in an a most forgotten valley hemmed in by precipitous, cliffs and reeking with \irulent ague. Yet here, before the coining of the Spaniards, were great and flourishing gold mines, and rums of whole towns built of stone or adobe may still be seen, half hidden in the encroaching Jungle (says a write in "John o' London's Weekly"). Expedition after expedition has struggled to reach this Eldorado, but of them all .only two men have ever returned. One was dying on his legs of fever, the other was mad, but they brought a story of a huge dim tunnel in which lay piles of smelted gold ready for removal. . Vast Treasure. Treasure-seeking is one of the poorest methods of making a living, yet it is beyond any possible doubt that the gold buried by man in the bosom of Mother Earth far. exceeds all that is in circulation at the present time. No need to talk of the hoards of pirates or buccaneers. There are first the vast treasures buried by the Indians of South America when fleeing before the covetous Spaniards, then there are the millions hoarded underground in India and China and" in all other countries where banks have never been in fashion. In Morocco alone there must be tons of such treasure, because ror . centuries past it;has been the habit of the Moors to hide gold in the earth. Quite apart from the difficulty of discovering such hiding places, the belief is general that ill-luck awaits the treasure-finding, and the stories supportin gsuc'h superstition are countless. Near Johnsville in Nova Scotia a hole ir, a cliff was revealed by a tree blown down in a storm. Two men went to investigate, and did not return. They were found deaa, suffocated by bad air> and further in were found two skeletons, apparently of earlier seekers. Beside the bones stood an old iron kettle containing a few pieces of seventeenth century gold. In Britain. Our own country is full of legends of guarded treasure. At Bransil Castle, In Herefordshire, there is said to be a chest of gold watched over by an evil spirit n the shape of a black crow. (All that part of the country is stiff with similar stories. Hulme Castle and Stokesay Castle were each supposed to have treasure chests secreted in their vaults. Som years ago when Hulme Castle was pulled down, a search was made, but without result. In the South of Scotland Hermitage Castle is believed to have vast treasure hidden in its ruins. But the gold Is in the keeping of the Evil One and whenever efforts are made to find it, the 'sky darkens and a feaful storm of thunder and lightning paralyses the seeker. Another Scottish hoard is the pot of gold hidden in'a pool under Craufurdland Bridge, near Kilmarnock A former laird of Craufurdland dammed the burn and had almost emptied, the pool when a voice was heard shouting that his house was afire. He and his men ran, only to find that the report was a false one, but when they returned the dam was broken and the pool full.