A VICTORIAN MYSTERY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 5, 7 January 1915, Page 7

A VICTORIAN MYSTERY.

SUPPOSED TRAGEDY. Melbourne, December 24. A pool of fresh blood was discovered beside the old Black Hill Mining Company's shaft this morning. The shaft is about 480 ft: deep. The mouth has partly fallen in, and a cavity about 12ft. square exists between the edge of the shaft and the pool of blood. There are several Kmall spots of blood, which also extend down the Bides of the shaft as far as can be seen. The earth is also disturbed both on the surface of the firm ground, and also in the loose earth down the sides of the cavity.

It is thought possible that a human bring has been shot and dragged to the shaft and dropped in. The ap pearance of the earth suggests this. A tinful of the earth saturated with the blood has been taken for analy-

Yesterday afternoon, on two different occasions between noon and 3 or 4 o'clock a man and woman were seen strolling about the neighbourhood of the shaft, which is very secluded, and at about 2.30 this morning Mrs Penhall, who lives about 300 yards from the mouth of the shaft, heard screams, which she thought were those of a woman.

Steps are being taken at once to examine the shaft should the blood prove to be human; but it is not likely that an attempt will be made until the fact is establisshed, as the task of descending tfre shaft is a hazardous one, owing to the foul air and the insecuritv of the timbering.

The New Year's Eve tradgedy of seven years ago is recalled. This was known as the Vale Park mystery, and was never solved. On that occasion a woman's body was found at the bottom of an abandoned shaft,at Bal. larat North, close to the ficene of the present mystery. It was shown that she had been murdered.