Sunklands

1st map of the general Byng area, featuring both Kansas and Kentucky (flat platform area on ridge above Byng).

Byng Stream — starts high up on Wealthy Mtn. as a multitude of various forks which combine just before The Impasse (see below). Byng Stream basically runs through these areas:

– Upper Byng (forks just mentioned, in open, walkable woods);
– Impasse or The Impasse (rhododendron clogged region where forks unite as one stream — Byng — which then flows more rapidly as it forms several, long cascades;
– Kansas (general area between lower extent of Impasse and Lion’s Roar that has a navigable path running through it [in contrast to Impasse], forming more of a gorge-like region with steep sides);
– Lower Byng (from Lion’s Roar to mouth of creek at Flanigan’s Fork next to the nearest road — runs through a more open area here with, as in Upper Byng, many options for traversing)

Individual sites on Byng Stream:

Lion’s Roar — near lower end of Kansas that Byng flows all the way through; is a large, overhanging rock, the largest in the mapped area, it seems, and perhaps by a considerable margin. The overhang is extended enough so that I could stay here in the rain and be comfortable without getting wet, a notable plus in future considerations about developing this area. Lion’s Roar already shelters 50 objects (jars, pots, etc.) coming from the side of neighboring Yards Mtn., pieces of a future art happening in this area, no doubt.

Kansas Path — traceable path running all the way through the Kansas region of Byng, starting at the upper reach of Lower Byng and ending at the start of Impasse.

Periwinkle Falls — small cascades just upstream from Lion’s Roar. Split in paths just before, with left hand path (Kansas Path still) taking you upstream and right hand path forming basic beginning of Mystery Path connecting Kansas and Upper Byng in passing around the eastern side of Impasse.

Four Minutes — area recently cleared of dead rhododendron just above Periwinkle Falls. Represents possible future site of Temple of TIDE and more. Mystery Path runs through here; Kansas Path on other side of Byng from here. Named for a Roger Waters song.

Rock Island — small isle of rocks upstream from Four Minutes, near the center of Kansas. Debate in past whether this is part of Kansas or older defined yet vague regions of both Illinois and Iowa, perhaps stemming from the existence of a city called Rock Island (named for an island located between these 2 states) in the “real world”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Island,_Illinois

This also seems to imply an assoc. between Byng Creek and the Mighty Mississippi River. Iowa and Illinois, seen as one, are also 2 states bridging Kansas to the west (bordering Iowa) with Kentucky to the east (bordering Illinois). Some say our Rock Island floated downstream from somewhere within The Impasse, losing its Illinois/Iowa ties in the process (deeply debatable).

6 Mile Hill — as yet undeveloped region surrounding a large, dead tree (Rot Tree) in upper Kansas. Could be a center of that already mentioned future art happening. Perhaps. The name 6 Mile Hill relates to 4 Minutes also found in Kansas, and also a 6 Minute Hill on the Jeogeot continent of Second Life located in a sim of the same name. Shrine of Second Life here, then? (Jeogeot?)

Impasse Trees/”SF”/Mine — composing a single area in extreme upper Kansas, on the edge of Impasse and where you can’t keep making your way upstream on Byng directly because of clogging rhododendron, falling trees, briars, and more. The Mine in question is rumoured to be owned by Lisa the Vegetarian, and thus is perhaps an old quartz mine. “SF” just below it (“Suspiciously Flat”) may also be a hopeful reference to gold town San Francisco. Kansas Path end can connect to Mystery Path here, but the way up the embankment is quite steep, with falls and possible loss of limbs forewarned.

Kansas & Kentucky & More 02

Revisited Kentucky yesterday and produced the following pictures. First up is of a string I set up running all along the Bee Line of Kentucky, which I was surprised to find out runs about 60-70 yards across the ridge. Amazingly long, straight line, then, and I’m starting to strongly suspect a direct affinity with DSotR2, another amazing alignment of considerable length. If these two line-ups are essentially one underneath it all, or directly related to each other, then this casts the Tin S. Man/Wallace3 relationship in nearby Green Oz Valley in a new light, perhaps one of renewed cooperation.

First up in our stringed line pictures comes the glass shard left in the ground just up from what I consider now the two central maple trees of our Kentucky story — more on those trees just below. As you can see, the string representing the Bee Line almost directly crosses over this buried segment of glass.

Bee Line running past the tree with the hole at the bottom pictured in this earlier post, and also Split Log just behind it, mentioned in the same post.

I’m calling these 3 rocks projecting from the leaf covered ground here Tie Rocks, not because they wear ties, har, but because these are what I tied the upper end of my string to, and so also marking this as the probable, upper reach of Bee Line itself. Might also be called “End Rocks”, then.

Another picture of that mysterious, rock covered mound just on the opposite side of Bee Line from these rocks.

So back to the 2 maple trees where the glass shards came from, here we have pictured the considerably smaller of the two, called Tiny Tree for now. Contrast this to the description of Poe’s skull bedecked, very tall tulip tree in “The Gold Bug”, already discussed in this earlier post. Since writing that text, I’ve also noticed that the Bee Line runs right through the two maple trees in question, basically bisecting an imaginary line running between them. I believe Tiny Tree relates directly to Poe’s aforementioned, huge tulip tree, then (inversion or reversal), and is doubled by the larger maple right on the opposite side of Bee Line.

Another very interesting thing to mention is that Tiny Tree’s bark has been worn off toward its base, as seen below. Have deer been rubbing against it? Or is this possibly additional handiwork by humans from previous times? It seems like more the actions of a knife did this. Could be wrong, but that makes for a lot of rubbing if not.

2 tall beech trees, which bend toward each other at their tops to intertwine in the leafy parts, seem to dramatically mark the lower end of Bee Line, which might start in the gap between them or in the immediate vicinity. The higher merger of the trees way up in the air here seems to mirror the unifying energy of the Bee Line between them on the ground. Yes, seems significant.

Lastly and probably not leastly we have the presence of an actual skull in Kentucky, of unknown animal origin. This comes from the southeast corner of the platform region. Is it a fox, perhaps? Doesn’t look like a calf’s but could be wrong, once more. Also significant is that only one of the two eyes sockets remain on the skull (the right one), and Poe’s “Gold Bug” story prominently features eyes of a skull. Specifically, Legrand’s servant Jupiter had to drop the gold bug and attached line through the *left* eye of the skull, and not the right eye. Only the left eye drop of the bug determines the correct position of the treasure subsequently uncovered, although the right eye was mistakenly tried first because of Jupiter’s inability to tell his left from his right.

Maybe the skull is that of a domestic dog instead?? (at least it’s not human!)

fox skull

Comparisons between the discovery of the Bee’s Line of the Kentucky Flat (another type of “natural platform”, as mentioned in Poe’s excerpt here) with primary events in Poe’s “Gold Bug” short story.

The natural platform to which we had clambered was thickly overgrown with brambles, through which we soon discovered that it would have been impossible to force our way but for the scythe; and Jupiter, by direction of his master, proceeded to clear for us a path to the foot of an enormously tall tulip-tree, which stood, with some eight or ten oaks, upon the level, and far surpassed them all, and all other trees which I had then ever seen, in the beauty of its foliage and form, in the wide spread of its branches, and in the general majesty of its appearance. When we reached this tree, Legrand turned to Jupiter, and asked him if he thought he could climb it.

There are no tulip trees in my Kentucky, but instead beech and maple trees, it appears. There is a central tree of maple variety, however, probably as tall as any on this flat or platform, and it is in front this tree I found my own version of a gold bug, about 2 feet from the circumference of the trunk.

During this colloquy no portion of Jupiter’s person could be seen; but the beetle, which he had suffered to descend, was now visible at the end of the string, and glistened, like a globe of burnished gold, in the last rays of the setting sun, some of which still faintly illumined the eminence upon which we stood. The scarabaeus hung quite clear of any branches, and, if allowed to fall, would have fallen at our feet. Legrand immediately took the scythe, and cleared with it a circular space, three or four yards in diameter, just beneath the insect, and, having accomplished this, ordered Jupiter to let go the string and come down from the tree.

I cleared a space of about 3 or 4 yards in front of aforementioned maple tree, to find the bits and pieces of an old, shattered bottle. In the clearing process I stumbled upon the gold bug. Legrand in Poe’s story clears the ground *for* the dropping gold bug, which landed in its approx. center.

Driving a peg, with great nicety, into the ground, at the precise spot where the beetle fell, my friend now produced from his pocket a tape-measure. Fastening one end of this at that point of the trunk of the tree which was nearest the peg, he unrolled it till it reached the peg, and thence farther unrolled it, in the direction already established by the two points of the tree and the peg, for the distance of fifty feet –Jupiter clearing away the brambles with the scythe. At the spot thus attained a second peg was driven, and about this, as a centre, a rude circle, about four feet in diameter, described. Taking now a spade himself, and giving one to Jupiter and one to me, Legrand begged us to set about one to digging as quickly as possible.

For me, the Bee’s Line, straight as if laid out with a tape measure, extended from the center of this cleared space about 30 yards up to the crest of the hill separating Kentucky from the rest of Herman Park. The line in my case was found first, then the space cleared when I followed the line to the maple tree to reveal the broken pieces of the bottle, then the gold bug uncovered. It was basically backwards from Legrand’s process…

We now worked in earnest, and never did I pass ten minutes of more intense excitement. During this interval we had fairly unearthed an oblong chest of wood, which, from its perfect preservation, and wonderful hardness, had plainly been subjected to some mineralizing process –perhaps that of the Bi-chloride of Mercury. This box was three feet and a half long, three feet broad, and two and a half feet deep. It was firmly secured by bands of wrought iron, riveted, and forming a kind of trellis-work over the whole. On each side of the chest, near the top, were three rings of iron –six in all –by means of which a firm hold could be obtained by six persons. Our utmost united endeavors served only to disturb the coffer very slightly in its bed. We at once saw the impossibility of removing so great a weight. Luckily, the sole fastenings of the lid consisted of two sliding bolts. These we drew back –trembling and panting with anxiety. In an instant, a treasure of incalculable value lay gleaming before us. As the rays of the lanterns fell within the pit, there flashed upwards, from a confused heap of gold and of jewels, a glow and a glare that absolutely dazzled our eyes.

… except I didn’t discover any skeletons or treasure at the crest of the hill to start the whole thing. There *was* a rock pile that seemed artifical. Should I dig there? (probably not).

There appears to be no parallel to Legrand’s cryptic parchment either, created by Cpt. Kidd. NOTE: Perhaps the *bottle* itself is the parchement in this case, and not the treasure itself? Pieced back together, does it create some type of similar message? What of the bottom piece of the bottle, found away from the rest and acting like a miniature terranium now? NOTE: Connected to the expression “message in a bottle”, like in The Police song of the same title? One might also have to break such a bottle to retrieve the message. So the message could be the equivalent to Poe’s cryptic parchment here, except there’s no parchment of course. Is there?

NOTE: I skipped the part in Poe’s story about missing the treasure on an original dig by Legrand and co. because the golden bug was dropped from the wrong eye by the dyslexic Jupiter.

NOTE: There is a slight possibility that the crest of the hill with the rock piling can act as a sighting spot, much in the manner of the Devil’s Seat in Poe’s story.

More Kentucky pics, and now we are at the heart of the matter: the finding of a *”bee line”* running all the way across this ridge totaling a distance of about 35 yards or so. Below is a log split almost on this bee line, which gave me one of the first, large clues that the obviously mystical and occult line was present in the first place.

This photo represents a basically failed attempt to show this Bee Line running through the woods up to the ridge marking a western limit of Kentucky. So in a doctored up version beside it I highlight where the line is.

Just after discovering the line, I started to find bits and pieces of a broken bottle right in the path of it, and beside a prominent maple tree of the ridge. I cleared out an area of several yards around in the process…

… finding, for example, a small glass bit underneath a rock…

… and then this *gold bug* clinging to the side of another rock in sweeping away more leaves, which I instantly knew to be important. I think I had already made the link with Edgar Allen Poe’s famous detective short story “The Gold Bug” when taking this picture, since I vaguely remembered some kind of “bee’s line ” or plumb line also being mentioned in that tale.

The gold bug turned over to show off more of its defining color.

The bits of found glass shards kept piling up at the base of the maple tree as I continued to uncover them in the immediate area.

Another shot of the smaller tree in the middle of the grass clumps, the same as pictured at the beginning of this particular blog post. The shards were mainly found between it and the maple tree, which would be behind me-the-shooter here.

Yet another piece of glass uncovered, right on the Bee Line. I decided not to remove this particular shard. Despite the volume of glass found, I still think it all came from a single shattered bottle.

Another section of the Bee Line. Does that tree to the left form some kind of avatar home, complete with a front door? The thought had to cross my mind. Similar “doors in trees” exist in the immediate area as well, and perhaps one or two more quite close to the Bee Line, even. Hafta check that upon a return here.

Photo of Byng (Creek) as it passes the flat, cleared area now known as Four Minutes (just left, offshot). The large rock in the center of the photo, as yet unnamed, lies between the creek and this flat spot. Four Minutes is now also the place where, technically, the Mystery Path connecting Kansas/lower Byng and upper Byng starts. More elements of fate, then, that the space was cleared by me of dead rhododendron plants several days ago, as it allows one to move freely up the embankment now where this path then leads.

Further upstream, we have an interesting isle of rocks, also unnamed. Is this another site for a potential temple of some kind, perhaps of a rock variety itself?

Upper extreme of Kansas, where it almost looks like someone has dug into a bank behind an uprooted tree. At least Sue thinks so; more on Sue soon.

A section of the Mystery Path, depicting one of many small white rocks seeming to mark the trail along the way. I cannot doubt that these are signature stones of Lisa the Vegetarian, who appears to now communicate to me (and potentially others) through *quartz*.

We then move to Kentucky, a larger flat spot on the ridge just west of Byng. Below is pictured a small yet central tree found in the middle of an area with several patches of grass. Kentucky has become very important to a correct, synchronistic interpretation of Byng and also Wealthy Mtn. as a whole, it seems. Obviously we have more workings of Lisa V. to take into account here.

Two Kentucky trees that seem to have a path running between them.

More isolated clump of grass on this ridge quite near the above trees.

Looking up into a buckeye tree, I believe. The leaves are peaking now around this elevation.

Rotting log creating a colorful Kentucky landmark via its intense redness.

More grass, but of a different, taller species that the types pictured above.