Nova Scotia stretches 500 kilometres on a southwest-northeast axis from Cape Sable to Cape North, the shape of the province is often compared to that native delicacy, the lobster, with Cape Breton Island representing the outstretched claws, preparing to nip unsuspecting Newfoundland across the Cabot Strait.
The coastline of the uplands region is deeply indented, forming many good harbours, some of which are considered outstanding. Hundreds of islands dot the landscape along the entire Atlantic coast, most notably at St. Margarets Bay and Mahone Bay. Reefs and shoals abound, accounting for the many lighthouses erected along this coast. In many ways the Atlantic uplands coast epitomizes the North Atlantic coastline with its bare granite sheets plunging headlong into the raging surf to produce an awesome cataclysm between land and sea. When people think of Nova Scotia, they usually envisage the rocky granite shores of the uplands. Money Pit Discoveries 1804-1805
Some time between seven and fifteen years after the original discovery, operations at the Pit were resumed. Most accounts say “seven years,” which would place the resumption of work about 1803; although the account in the Colonist of January 2, 1864, gives the time as “fifteen years” after the first discovery. The weight of evidence, however, fixes the date as 1804. The Colonist account says:
The late Simeon Lynds of Onslow, a man well known in many parts of Colchester County, at the time happened to visit Chester on business. As Lynds’ father and Vaughan were related, he called and passed an evening with him. In the course of their conversation, Lynds was let into the secret of the “Pit” on Oak Island, and the opinion entertained about it by Vaughan and his companions.
Another version, however - a modern one dating from 1930 - gives the name of Dr. John Lynds of Truro. According to this version, John Smith’s wife did not want their first child to be born on Oak Island, apparently because of its mysterious history. They therefore traveled to Truro to see Dr. John Lynds, a relative of Anthony Vaughan, and they stayed at his home in Truro until the birth of the child.
During their stay with Dr. Lynds they told him of the Pit and he became greatly interested, and when they returned to Oak Island he came along with them to see the island and advise as to further exploration of the Pit.
After considerable research, little or no evidence has been found in support of this story. The best evidence is that Smith did not build his house on the Island until about 1805 and, their first child was born at Chester some time before April 15, 1798, on which date he was baptized.
Moreover, the genealogy of the Lynds family of Colchester County shows no physician with the name “John” at this time.
It would seem very improbable in those days, with all the existing difficulties of travel, that John Smith and his wife should travel to Truro, more than one hundred miles away, when competent midwives, if not a physician, were available in Chester, four miles away, or in Halifax, forty-four miles distant, if not in nearby Lunenburg, Mahone or Bridgewater. James McNutt’s diary written on the island in 1863, when and where the best sources of information were available, gives Simeon Lynds of Onslow as the leader of the expedition of 1804.
The accepted version of the story relates that the next day Vaughan crossed over to the place with Simeon Lynds, in a boat, to let him pass his own judgment upon it. The result of Lynds’ visit was that he came to Vaughan’s way of thinking:
Lynds was then a young man (about thirty years) and his father (Thomas) Lynds was in comfortable circumstances, and he had a good many well-to-do friends. He concluded to go home, form a company among them, to assist the pioneers in the search after the treasure and to complete it.