ANOTHER BIG FIND.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2045, 18 July 1885, Page 2

ANOTHER BIG FIND.

Truly, \ve live in an age of wonders. Qlose upon th? story of the discovery of the veritable Arc of Noah, and of mountains of gold in New South Wiles, conies the following which we extract from: a recent Amorican paper The adventures of our fellow citizens, who a few months agoVstarted to explore the ruined cities of the Eaat, and which have from timt to time been publissd in our columns, have been of thrilling interest, but % are outdone by this, tie latest, which, , though as . well authenticated as anything can be,Y fails almost to pass belief, . It appears that on the 17th April, 1884, our friends were traversing th» Great Arabian Desert in a direction almost untrodden even by the wild-

JBedulns themselves, when towards .owning- they, came to some eitergsiyp' ruinß, which were utterly unknown to the guide, and were not shown upon the. carefully prepared map by which they directed their course. Contrary to the advic,e of their guides, and in spite of the ,violent opposition of the Arabs of the party, our friends determined to emcamp for the night beside the ruins, and in the morning thoroughly explore them, When the morning came, a complete exploration of the ruins was made and after some hours scrambling over fallen columns and huge masses of masonry, a passage, much blocked up with rubbish, was discovered which promised to lead into the interior. Provided with torches, our friends < commenced their underground journey to find that, once past the entrance, the passage, widened, and they' had no difficulty in following it until it led them into a spacious chamber, the walls of which were covered with paintings of a high order of merit, representing for the moat part hunting and battle scenes. Erom this chamber they passed through' several others, till finally they, reached a chamber smaller than the others, and less damaged by the fire which had evidently passed through them all. In this chamber they found remains of furniture, stone seats, couches, metal utensils, and a few personal ornaments, t-rinklets and the like, and hidden in a -Corner, amidst a heap of rubbish, and mubh corroded,,was a lamp, made of some metal resembling brass. A close inspection showed an inscription, and C—r-, who held it, having removed with his knife the rust which had accumulated upon it, commenced vigorously to polish it with his coat sleeve, when lo ! a mighy noise like the roll of an earthquake was heard, the building shook to its foundations, the chamber was quickly filled with thick clouds of smoke, and J—— declared lie heard a deep hoarse Yoice speaking in an unknown tongue. At this moment J—- cried "Great' Scott, it's Aladdin's Wondeiful Lamp,' and C— waiting to hear no more, dashed the lamp to floor and fled for his life, closely followed by fcha others j nor did thoy hesitate nor atop till they cast themselved, exhausted, upon/the sands of the desert, some distance from the entrance to the' passage. Next morning, having laughed each other out of thoir fears, and believing that the Arabs had exploded some gunpowder to frighten them from further explorations, thoy determined to go again and bring the lamp into the open fir, and in the light of day tset its magic powors; but this they were unable to do, for in spite of the closest search they could not again find the entrance to the passage, or point certainly to within a hundred yards of where it had been, and after some days spent in 'a fruitless search they were obliged to give it up and resume their journey, across the desert,' leaving Aladdin's Wondorfull Lamp to be discovered by some traveller- of the future possessed of higher courage and steadier nerves than those of our friends. — Memphis Bulletin