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TREASURE OF THE SAN ANDREAS SAN TREASURE THE ANDREAS leaving the main highway going south to El Paso by a rough track which took him across the wild and deso- late area that stretched around for many miles. On that mom- ing, he had risen early to go hunting. He was a peculiar man, who preferred the solitude of open spaces to the companion- ship of neighbourly society. He always enjoyed driving across this parched, lifeless land, where nothing grew but the tall spiky cactus, and he was never more happy than when he was climbing the high ground of the sierras, away from the hum- drum lifestyle of the city. He was an experienced hunter and prospector, and although no longer young, he still had all the energy and enterprise of most men half his age. Few people knew this country better than he. For many years he had wan- dered the high semi arid plateaus of the upper Rio Grande, and explored the numerous mountains and narrow valleys of that remote district. He continued to drive fast along the dusty track which served as a road until he came to the southern end of the San Andreas Mountains. Here he stopped, in the shade of a projecting cliff, got out of his vehicle with a rifle and water bottle, and started to climb up the rough, sloping ground, in the shadow of Vitorio Peak. By mid-day, after several hours of unavailing search for game, during which time he did not spot even a rabbit, Doc Noss was feeling uncomfortably hot and somewhat fatigued. On the mountainside, where he stood, below Vitorio Peak, he saw an old Indian trail leading up to a great tangle of standing boulders. Up there among the rocks, he decided, would be a good place of refuge from the glare of the sun. He was sitting on a rock, smoking a cigarette, idly contemplating his sur- roundings, when a stone slab, on the ground a few feet away, suddenly caught his attention. There was something odd and strangely out of place about it. With his curiosity aroused, he went over to the stone, and casually began to kick up the ground around it with the toe of his boot. On impulse, he bent and grasped the stone with both hands and lifted. As it came away from the ground, a gust of air rushed up and swept his face. He stared in disbelief at the hole he had uncovered. It was about ten feet deep, with a ladder that led down to an opening in the side of the mountain. He lay the stone aside, and stood there staring down at the hole a while so amazed was he to find it. Doc Noss hurried back to his utility truck, and within half an hour returned with a torch. Carefully descending the lad- der, he found the opening was the entrance to a long passage- way which appeared to go right in under Vitorio Peak. The passageway was about five feet high by four feet wide with a roof that was unsupported against subsidence. Inside the pas- sageway, the bright beam of light from his torch revealed sev- eral places where the roof has partially fallen in, depositing small heaps of rubble in his path. He crept unsteadily forward, D= Noss drove his utility truck rather fast to the east, By Ted Smith An estimated 20 billion in gold has been discovered in underground caverns in New Mexico. According to a television program (Great Mysteries of the World) shown in Australia two years ago, the incredibly rich discovery was made in 1949 by a man named Doc Noss. ~~ Bibliography: Prescott, William. H., - The Conquest of Peru. Hordern, Nicholas - God, Gold and Glory Aldus Books/Jupiter Books - The New World Atlas of American History - Charles Scribner's Sons NEXUS¢41 OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 1992