een clear of
water, but overnight it filled within twenty-five feet of the top.
Persistent efforts were made to bail out the flood but with such poor
success that the shaft was abandoned and another sunk nearby, the plan
being to tunnel into the first pit and thereby drain it and get at the
treasure. The second shaft was driven to a depth of a hundred and ten
feet, but while the tunnel was in progress the water broke through and
made the laborers flee for their lives. The company had spent all its
money, and the results were so discouraging that the work was abandoned.

It was not until 1849 that another attempt was made to fathom the
meaning of the extraordinary mystery of Oak Island. Dr. Lynds and
Vaughan were still alive and their narratives inspired the organization
of another treasure-seeking company. Vaughan easily found the old
"Money Pit" as it was called, and the original shaft was opened and
cleared to a depth of eighty-six feet when an inrush of water stopped
the undertaking. Again the work ceased for lack of adequate pumping
machinery, and it was decided to use a boring apparatus such as was
employed in prospecting for coal. A platform was rigged in the old
shaft, and the large auger bit its way in a manner described by the
manager of the enterprise as follows:

"The platform was struck at ninety-eight feet, just as the old diggers
found it. After going through this platform, which was five inches
thick and proved to be of spruce, the auger dropped twelve inches and
then went through four inches of oak; then it went through twenty-two
inches of metal in pieces, but the auger failed to take any of it
except three links resembling an ancient watch-chain. It then went
through eight inches of oak, which was thought to be the bottom of the
first box and the top of the next; then through twenty-two inches of
metal the same as before; then four inches of oak and six inches of
spruce, then into clay seven feet without striking anything. In the
next boring, the platform was struck as before at ninety-eight feet;
passing through this, the auger fell about eighteen inches, and came in
contact with, as supposed, the side of a cask. The flat chisel
revolving close to the side of the cask gave it a jerk and irregular
motion. On withdrawing the auger several splinters of oak, such as
might come from the side of an oak stave, and a small quantity of a
brown fibrous substance resembling the husk of a cocoa-nut, w