Books: Hordes After Hoards

PANORAMA OF TREASURE HUNTING—Harold T. Wilkins—Dutton ($5).

To Harold T. Wilkins the world is a musty parchment marked "Unexplored," "Galleon Sunck Heer," "Ye Treasure iii Leagues S.W." Panorama of Treasure Hunting is his sixth book on buried ingots and briny chests, prehistoric cities along the feverish Amazon and gold dust combed from the pelts of Klondike grizzlies. Many treasures are hunted, few are found. But their seekers are slaves to the quest as gamblers to the wheel, hopheads to the needle.

Magnetic pole of the gold digger's globe is 5° 30'N, 87°W: a Pacific...