256 



THE OPAL SEA 



The hard- 

 sh ips of the 

 explorers. 



Searching 

 for pnld at 

 the north. 



tant seas. Even the Arctic regions were ran- 

 sacked in the search. For at one time the tra- 

 dition obtained that under the Northern Lights, 

 under the pole was hidden gold in fabulous 

 quantities, guarded by gnomes and goblins as 

 the Eheingold by Mimi and the Ehine Maidens. 

 But the seekers found only starvation and the 

 cold of death. The vast unknown of the Arc- 

 tic, the weird lights of summer, the brilliant 

 coloring of the auroras, the twilight skies, the 

 walls of ice crystal, the waves of glass, the pur- 

 ple shadows upon snow and ice were all lost 

 upon the voyagers. They were bent upon a 

 more sordid mission. 



Even to this day, when the treasure-tales 

 have grovm somewhat threadbare, the forecastle 

 still listens to accounts of Kidd's wealth buried 

 on Gardiner's Island ; to the tale of the Spanish 

 galleon " San Pedro " sunk in the Margarita 

 Channel on the Central American coast so many 

 years ago, with all her golden images and pre- 

 cious stones and thirty millions in doubloons; 

 to the legend of the French frigate, " La Lu- 

 tino " which went down in the Zuider Zee with 

 three hundred and thirty golden bars beside 

 bags and kegs of coin. The glitter of gold still 

 dazzles. 



The races of to-day have been, in some re- 



Sunken 

 treasures. 



