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confine their possessions to the good earth until they could return. There were others later who mistrusted banks and hid money on their property secretly, intending to reveal its whereabouts before death, but being stricken suddenly without having done so. This was said to have happened at Port Mouton, but the son was fortunate in finding the $2,700 his father had buried. It was in a three-legged iron pot and lay two feet under ground.
    The greatest inspiration however stems from the fact of Captain Kidd’s fabulous treasure, and many people think that it lies in Nova Scotia. Some say it is buried in a bay that has three hundred and sixty-five islands and that both Mahone and Argyle Bays answer to these requirements. Rocks have been found bearing the name of the famous pirate. At Glen Margaret in St. Margaret’s Bay there is a rock bearing the words “Kapt Kit.” Oak Island in Mahone Bay, made internationally famous by the many unsuccessful attempts to find treasure there, has another. It bears the letters “200” and the word “Kidd.” When first discovered it was in a field but was later dragged by ox team to the shore. Another lies at Marion Bridge. It is shaped like a tombstone but is not so large. It is not near any highway or waterway, and is set upright in the woods. It gives the year and date of his death chiselled in the rock, and these words, “Captain Kidd died without mercy.” It was discovered by a man who was hunting and trapping and it was covered with moss, showing that it has been there for a great many years. A rock on White Island on the eastern shore has letters and a hand pointing to the tip of the island. Just why this name appears with its different spellings in such widely separated parts of the Province we will never know, for there is little likelihood that Captain Kidd was ever here.
    We may speculate upon the source of treasure, but there is no doubt that money and other wealth have been extricated from the ground and washed up on our shores. People known to be poor have suddenly grown rich like a couple at Clarke’s Harbour who were seen through a window drying bills on the oven door. Another man there found a bag on the shore in the eel grass, kicked it, then opened it, and hastened to get his wheelbarrow to take it home. He and his family have prospered ever since. At Clam Harbour a woman dreamed of buried treasure and a man went with her and found it with a mineral rod. They unearthed a copper bake pan full of English sovereigns. It must have been a sizable amount for they divided it and the man was able to buy horses and also to send his sons to college. A transport struck off Egg Island loaded with soldiers for Halifax, and the payroll was on board. The captain and mate got the money chest and made off with it but nobody knew where they went. Fifty years later a small steamer went into a cove at Laybold Island. In the morning fishermen went out and saw the skids where an iron box had been taken from the ground. They have wondered ever since if this was the missing payroll or some other treasure.
    At Indian Cove a man and woman went to get treasure revealed in a dream, but a ship’s boat with ten men, each rowing a single oar, arrived at the same time. When these had left, there was nothing there but the hole and the skids. In a similar case at East Chezzetcook a man and his wife were just starting to dig and had actually got as far as striking the chest with their pick when they heard a boat coming. They did not want to shed blood to get their treasure, nor were they prepared to risk their own lives by claiming it for themselves. They hid in the woods and, when this boatload of men went away, there was nothing left but the imprint in the ground where the chest had rested and an empty three-legged iron kettle which they had left behind.
    A man at Sambro picked up a gold statue from the ground; another at Ball Rock who never did anything but dig