Thank you for your information.
Now to ponder what it all means.
Can I suggest something based on what Haliburton wrote in and around 1847? He obviously knew something about the popular currents of this day from living in this period. At this time North America had just gone through a wild frenzy relating to a popular prognostication that was alleged to inform of the Second Coming of Christ in 1843. This had come out of the study of interpreted Biblically numerology and "clues" in the book of Daniel, among other places. An arithmetic had been produced and hotly debated. That, of course never occurred. The entire episode was called the Great Millerite Disappointment.
There exists the possibility that the OI story is just trying to exploit the same sort of Biblically inspired delusion using recognizable numerology. 1843, being what it was alleged to be, is 80 years after the settling there which started in 1763 with the arrival of the Planter settlers from Rhode Island. Smack dab in the middle of this period, 1803, is the alleged discovery of a stone. This divides the first 80 years of British colonial settlement there in two forty year periods (a parallel with the Israelites' story). The stone, if one bothers to read Reginal Harris' description of it, is rectangular and roughly 5:8 in dimension. On it there are 40 illegible characters in 8 groupings. It was later said to have been translated to read words to the effect that something (a great treasure) was 40 feet below. The discovery of a polished stone with illegible characters (associated with a shaft and a vault) happens to be a detail from a pre Christian era legend which treats such a stone as an omen for the end times. This makes this legend neatly fit into the popular End Times lore of the 1840s. The shaft associated with it is said to contain a vault that is unattainable (an allegorical suggestion). The shaft flooded when approached, and later would sink into the abyss when re-approached after being drained. This, surprisingly is also part of the unsubstantiated OI legend. To me that looks borrowed.
Additionally we eventually are given Nolan's cross which repeats the 5 by 8 proportion. On its stem there is a stone location that forms an angle of exactly 40 degrees with the "arm" end stones. This feature appears to relate very well to the surveying of 1762 that was produced by an individual who was associated with the first Masonic lodge in Nova Scotia present in the 40th regiment of foot. The 1762 survey date is 33 years prior the non-historical origin story of the "money pit". 33 in this context is a number which has a historically significant tradition of being a symbol of the ultimate mystery. For us, and in this case, we need to think of it as 3x3, three threes or 3^3=27. This, we get from the numeric mystery traditions (Chaldean and Pythagorean numerology which hold 9 as a symbol of the culmination of cycle). Nolan's Cross also gets presented to us in some aspect of the story telling as a pointer which is retelling the early 17th century folklore about the Northern Cross in Cygnus being the great celestial pointer that aligns with the Milky way (galactic plane). Cygnus' has traditionally been assigned the overall declination value of 40 degree N (an average value for the declination of its stars). As a pointer Nolan's Cross points via great circle to Jerusalem (if only approximately). That's an interesting sympathetic detail
As far as the pit dimensions are concerned those are also indicative of something that appears to be inspired. We are dealing with something that is given to us in "levels of 10". This, again, is the basis for a numerological treatment of decads (something that the Chaldeans exploited in their numbering which employed 10 digits ). At the 9h level we were given a stone which has the attribute of being an omen for the end of the cycle (of time). That is consistent with the numerological meaning of 9. Events are said to unfold when 111 feet in depth is reached in the pit which is 33 feet above sea level. Then, in what can only be seen as more of the same retelling of allegories, we are told that a vault is ultimately reached at 153 feet. Aside from being a most significant number symbolizing "plentifulness" in Biblical parlance, it is the number of occasions of 40 in early versions of the Bible. For the record, it is the most prolific number symbol used in the Bible. It is said represents a period of great change, tribulation or probation. Example of that are seen in Moses' life story (40 years in Egypt, 40 years leading the Israelites to the promised land, 40 years wandering), a great flood lasting 40 days, reappearance of God to his disciples 40 days after he died on the cross...It's always a period of time leading to period of "reward".
Haliburton noticed all this when it was developing. I suspect he smelled a Masonic rat. In his work that lampoons the Oak Island mystery the second chapter is titled: "How many fins has a cod? or Forty years ago". That's quite clever, because the cod has 8 fins and a "fin" is a popular expression for the number 5. Two (2) 40 year periods? Not to leave too much doubt as to his thinking about the relevance of the numbers used , the chapter he uses to focus on the OI story in this work is Chapter 9. It's called "the Hecke Thaler". HT, IMHO, is a slick allusion to Hiram of Tyre, the subject of much of the Masonic allegory). A thaler is of course a German silver coin. "Hecke" is a German word too, for bush, hedge or row of trees. This may strike us a pun about there being a treasure under a tree pointed to by alignments.
Anyway, not to repeat myself too much. Someone who was very interested in the shenanigans at OI bothered to write about it is a clever way to belittle it in the period it was happening. Halliburton also happened to know the men in question. As a NS judge he would have been quite aware of the suggestions of impropriety there surrounding the sale of shares to unsuspecting marks.
One has to be realistic about this story. It' s been embellished in so many recognizable ways. I would put much less emphasis on the modern speculations which try and evolve the story away from its decayed roots and concentrate on everything that doesn't compute historically and what matches known fictions.
