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+ <head>
+ <title>
+ The Smoky God, by Willis George Emerson
+ </title>
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Smoky God, by Willis George Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Smoky God
+
+Author: Willis George Emerson
+
+Release Date: October 29, 2009 [EBook #3007]
+Last Updated: January 26, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SMOKY GOD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Judy Boss, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <h1>
+ THE SMOKY GOD
+ </h1>
+ <h3>
+ OR
+ </h3>
+ <h1>
+ A Voyage to the Inner World
+ </h1>
+ <p>
+ <br />
+ </p>
+ <h2>
+ By Willis George Emerson
+ </h2>
+ <h4>
+ Author Of "Buell Hampton," "The Builders," Etc.
+ </h4>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <h5>
+ Copyright, 1908,
+ </h5>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+ Dedicated
+ TO
+ MY CHUM AND COMPANION
+ BONNIE EMERSON
+ MY WIFE
+
+</pre>
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="mynote">
+ <p>
+ NB: I have removed running heads and page numbers, have joined footnotes
+ spread over two or more pages, have moved footnotes to a position
+ immediately below the paragraph that refers to them, and have changed
+ footnote numbers from 1 at the beginning of each note to a sequence of
+ 1-25. I have also enclosed each footnote number in the text within
+ square brackets and have enclosed each entire footnote within square
+ brackets as well.
+ </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Note: I have made the following changes to the text:
+PAGE NOTE LINE
+ORIGINAL CHANGED TO 97 10 to too
+ 126 4 Heddekel Hiddekel
+ 139 1 3 Cratyluo Cratylus
+ 147 11 tiouous tinuous
+ 178 18 Los- Los
+ 180 1 17 Scoreby, Scoresby,
+</pre>
+ <br />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+ <h2>
+ Contents
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>THE SMOKY GOD</b> </a>
+ </p>
+ <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+ <tr>
+ <td>
+ <a href="#link2H_PART1"> PART ONE. </a>
+ </td>
+ <td>
+ AUTHOR'S FOREWORD
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>
+ <a href="#link2H_PART2"> PART TWO. </a>
+ </td>
+ <td>
+ OLAF JANSEN'S STORY
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>
+ <a href="#link2H_PART3"> PART THREE. </a>
+ </td>
+ <td>
+ BEYOND THE NORTH WIND
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>
+ <a href="#link2H_PART4"> PART FOUR. </a>
+ </td>
+ <td>
+ IN THE UNDER WORLD
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>
+ <a href="#link2H_PART5"> PART FIVE. </a>
+ </td>
+ <td>
+ AMONG THE ICE PACKS
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>
+ <a href="#link2H_PART6"> PART SIX. </a>
+ </td>
+ <td>
+ CONCLUSION
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>
+ <a href="#link2H_PART7"> PART SEVEN. &nbsp;&nbsp;</a>
+ </td>
+ <td>
+ AUTHOR'S AFTERWORD
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+ <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
+ </p>
+ <h1>
+ THE SMOKY GOD
+ </h1>
+ <h3>
+ OR
+ </h3>
+ <h2>
+ A VOYAGE TO THE INNER WORLD
+ </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+ "He is the God who sits in the center, on
+ the navel of the earth, and he is the interpreter
+ of religion to all mankind."&mdash;PLATO.
+</pre>
+ <p>
+ <a name="link2H_PART1" id="link2H_PART1">
+ <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
+ </p>
+ <div style="height: 4em;">
+ <br /><br /><br /><br />
+ </div>
+ <h2>
+ PART ONE. AUTHOR'S FOREWORD
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ I FEAR the seemingly incredible story which I am about to relate will be
+ regarded as the result of a distorted intellect superinduced, possibly, by
+ the glamour of unveiling a marvelous mystery, rather than a truthful
+ record of the unparalleled experiences related by one Olaf Jansen, whose
+ eloquent madness so appealed to my imagination that all thought of an
+ analytical criticism has been effectually dispelled.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Marco Polo will doubtless shift uneasily in his grave at the strange story
+ I am called upon to chronicle; a story as strange as a Munchausen tale. It
+ is also incongruous that I, a disbeliever, should be the one to edit the
+ story of Olaf Jansen, whose name is now for the first time given to the
+ world, yet who must hereafter rank as one of the notables of earth.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I freely confess his statements admit of no rational analysis, but have to
+ do with the profound mystery concerning the frozen North that for
+ centuries has claimed the attention of scientists and laymen alike.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ However much they are at variance with the cosmographical manuscripts of
+ the past, these plain statements may be relied upon as a record of the
+ things Olaf Jansen claims to have seen with his own eyes.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A hundred times I have asked myself whether it is possible that the
+ world's geography is incomplete, and that the startling narrative of Olaf
+ Jansen is predicated upon demonstrable facts. The reader may be able to
+ answer these queries to his own satisfaction, however far the chronicler
+ of this narrative may be from having reached a conviction. Yet sometimes
+ even I am at a loss to know whether I have been led away from an abstract
+ truth by the ignes fatui of a clever superstition, or whether heretofore
+ accepted facts are, after all, founded upon falsity.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It may be that the true home of Apollo was not at Delphi, but in that
+ older earth-center of which Plato speaks, where he says: "Apollo's real
+ home is among the Hyperboreans, in a land of perpetual life, where
+ mythology tells us two doves flying from the two opposite ends of the
+ world met in this fair region, the home of Apollo. Indeed, according to
+ Hecataeus, Leto, the mother of Apollo, was born on an island in the Arctic
+ Ocean far beyond the North Wind."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It is not my intention to attempt a discussion of the theogony of the
+ deities nor the cosmogony of the world. My simple duty is to enlighten the
+ world concerning a heretofore unknown portion of the universe, as it was
+ seen and described by the old Norseman, Olaf Jansen.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Interest in northern research is international. Eleven nations are engaged
+ in, or have contributed to, the perilous work of trying to solve Earth's
+ one remaining cosmological mystery.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ There is a saying, ancient as the hills, that "truth is stranger than
+ fiction," and in a most startling manner has this axiom been brought home
+ to me within the last fortnight.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It was just two o'clock in the morning when I was aroused from a restful
+ sleep by the vigorous ringing of my door-bell. The untimely disturber
+ proved to be a messenger bearing a note, scrawled almost to the point of
+ illegibility, from an old Norseman by the name of Olaf Jansen. After much
+ deciphering, I made out the writing, which simply said: "Am ill unto
+ death. Come." The call was imperative, and I lost no time in making ready
+ to comply.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Perhaps I may as well explain here that Olaf Jansen, a man who quite
+ recently celebrated his ninety-fifth birthday, has for the last half-dozen
+ years been living alone in an unpretentious bungalow out Glendale way, a
+ short distance from the business district of Los Angeles, California.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It was less than two years ago, while out walking one afternoon that I was
+ attracted by Olaf Jansen's house and its homelike surroundings, toward its
+ owner and occupant, whom I afterward came to know as a believer in the
+ ancient worship of Odin and Thor.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ There was a gentleness in his face, and a kindly expression in the keenly
+ alert gray eyes of this man who had lived more than four-score years and
+ ten; and, withal, a sense of loneliness that appealed to my sympathy.
+ Slightly stooped, and with his hands clasped behind him, he walked back
+ and forth with slow and measured tread, that day when first we met. I can
+ hardly say what particular motive impelled me to pause in my walk and
+ engage him in conversation. He seemed pleased when I complimented him on
+ the attractiveness of his bungalow, and on the well-tended vines and
+ flowers clustering in profusion over its windows, roof and wide piazza.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I soon discovered that my new acquaintance was no ordinary person, but one
+ profound and learned to a remarkable degree; a man who, in the later years
+ of his long life, had dug deeply into books and become strong in the power
+ of meditative silence.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I encouraged him to talk, and soon gathered that he had resided only six
+ or seven years in Southern California, but had passed the dozen years
+ prior in one of the middle Eastern states. Before that he had been a
+ fisherman off the coast of Norway, in the region of the Lofoden Islands,
+ from whence he had made trips still farther north to Spitzbergen and even
+ to Franz Josef Land.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When I started to take my leave, he seemed reluctant to have me go, and
+ asked me to come again. Although at the time I thought nothing of it, I
+ remember now that he made a peculiar remark as I extended my hand in
+ leave-taking. "You will come again?" he asked. "Yes, you will come again
+ some day. I am sure you will; and I shall show you my library and tell you
+ many things of which you have never dreamed, things so wonderful that it
+ may be you will not believe me."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I laughingly assured him that I would not only come again, but would be
+ ready to believe whatever he might choose to tell me of his travels and
+ adventures.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In the days that followed I became well acquainted with Olaf Jansen, and,
+ little by little, he told me his story, so marvelous, that its very daring
+ challenges reason and belief. The old Norseman always expressed himself
+ with so much earnestness and sincerity that I became enthralled by his
+ strange narrations.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Then came the messenger's call that night, and within the hour I was at
+ Olaf Jansen's bungalow.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ He was very impatient at the long wait, although after being summoned I
+ had come immediately to his bedside.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "I must hasten," he exclaimed, while yet he held my hand in greeting. "I
+ have much to tell you that you know not, and I will trust no one but you.
+ I fully realize," he went on hurriedly, "that I shall not survive the
+ night. The time has come to join my fathers in the great sleep."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I adjusted the pillows to make him more comfortable, and assured him I was
+ glad to be able to serve him in any way possible, for I was beginning to
+ realize the seriousness of his condition.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The lateness of the hour, the stillness of the surroundings, the uncanny
+ feeling of being alone with the dying man, together with his weird story,
+ all combined to make my heart beat fast and loud with a feeling for which
+ I have no name. Indeed, there were many times that night by the old
+ Norseman's couch, and there have been many times since, when a sensation
+ rather than a conviction took possession of my very soul, and I seemed not
+ only to believe in, but actually see, the strange lands, the strange
+ people and the strange world of which he told, and to hear the mighty
+ orchestral chorus of a thousand lusty voices.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ For over two hours he seemed endowed with almost superhuman strength,
+ talking rapidly, and to all appearances, rationally. Finally he gave into
+ my hands certain data, drawings and crude maps. "These," said he in
+ conclusion, "I leave in your hands. If I can have your promise to give
+ them to the world, I shall die happy, because I desire that people may
+ know the truth, for then all mystery concerning the frozen Northland will
+ be explained. There is no chance of your suffering the fate I suffered.
+ They will not put you in irons, nor confine you in a mad-house, because
+ you are not telling your own story, but mine, and I, thanks to the gods,
+ Odin and Thor, will be in my grave, and so beyond the reach of
+ disbelievers who would persecute."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Without a thought of the farreaching results the promise entailed, or
+ foreseeing the many sleepless nights which the obligation has since
+ brought me, I gave my hand and with it a pledge to discharge faithfully
+ his dying wish.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ As the sun rose over the peaks of the San Jacinto, far to the eastward,
+ the spirit of Olaf Jansen, the navigator, the explorer and worshiper of
+ Odin and Thor, the man whose experiences and travels, as related, are
+ without a parallel in all the world's history, passed away, and I was left
+ alone with the dead.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And now, after having paid the last sad rites to this strange man from the
+ Lofoden Islands, and the still farther "Northward Ho!", the courageous
+ explorer of frozen regions, who in his declining years (after he had
+ passed the four-score mark) had sought an asylum of restful peace in
+ sun-favored California, I will undertake to make public his story.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ But, first of all, let me indulge in one or two reflections:
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Generation follows generation, and the traditions from the misty past are
+ handed down from sire to son, but for some strange reason interest in the
+ ice-locked unknown does not abate with the receding years, either in the
+ minds of the ignorant or the tutored.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ With each new generation a restless impulse stirs the hearts of men to
+ capture the veiled citadel of the Arctic, the circle of silence, the land
+ of glaciers, cold wastes of waters and winds that are strangely warm.
+ Increasing interest is manifested in the mountainous icebergs, and
+ marvelous speculations are indulged in concerning the earth's center of
+ gravity, the cradle of the tides, where the whales have their nurseries,
+ where the magnetic needle goes mad, where the Aurora Borealis illumines
+ the night, and where brave and courageous spirits of every generation dare
+ to venture and explore, defying the dangers of the "Farthest North."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ One of the ablest works of recent years is "Paradise Found, or the Cradle
+ of The Human Race at the North Pole," by William F. Warren. In his
+ carefully prepared volume, Mr. Warren almost stubbed his toe against the
+ real truth, but missed it seemingly by only a hair's breadth, if the old
+ Norseman's revelation be true.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Dr. Orville Livingston Leech, scientist, in a recent article, says:
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "The possibilities of a land inside the earth were first brought to my
+ attention when I picked up a geode on the shores of the Great Lakes. The
+ geode is a spherical and apparently solid stone, but when broken is found
+ to be hollow and coated with crystals. The earth is only a larger form of
+ a geode, and the law that created the geode in its hollow form undoubtedly
+ fashioned the earth in the same way."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In presenting the theme of this almost incredible story, as told by Olaf
+ Jansen, and supplemented by manuscript, maps and crude drawings entrusted
+ to me, a fitting introduction is found in the following quotation:
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was
+ without form and void." And also, "God created man in his own image."
+ Therefore, even in things material, man must be God-like, because he is
+ created in the likeness of the Father.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A man builds a house for himself and family. The porches or verandas are
+ all without, and are secondary. The building is really constructed for the
+ conveniences within.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Olaf Jansen makes the startling announcement through me, an humble
+ instrument, that in like manner, God created the earth for the "within"&mdash;that
+ is to say, for its lands, seas, rivers, mountains, forests and valleys,
+ and for its other internal conveniences, while the outside surface of the
+ earth is merely the veranda, the porch, where things grow by comparison
+ but sparsely, like the lichen on the mountain side, clinging determinedly
+ for bare existence.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Take an egg-shell, and from each end break out a piece as large as the end
+ of this pencil. Extract its contents, and then you will have a perfect
+ representation of Olaf Jansen's earth. The distance from the inside
+ surface to the outside surface, according to him, is about three hundred
+ miles. The center of gravity is not in the center of the earth, but in the
+ center of the shell or crust; therefore, if the thickness of the earth's
+ crust or shell is three hundred miles, the center of gravity is one
+ hundred and fifty miles below the surface.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In their log-books Arctic explorers tell us of the dipping of the needle
+ as the vessel sails in regions of the farthest north known. In reality,
+ they are at the curve; on the edge of the shell, where gravity is
+ geometrically increased, and while the electric current seemingly dashes
+ off into space toward the phantom idea of the North Pole, yet this same
+ electric current drops again and continues its course southward along the
+ inside surface of the earth's crust.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In the appendix to his work, Captain Sabine gives an account of
+ experiments to determine the acceleration of the pendulum in different
+ latitudes. This appears to have resulted from the joint labor of Peary and
+ Sabine. He says: "The accidental discovery that a pendulum on being
+ removed from Paris to the neighborhood of the equator increased its time
+ of vibration, gave the first step to our present knowledge that the polar
+ axis of the globe is less than the equatorial; that the force of gravity
+ at the surface of the earth increases progressively from the equator
+ toward the poles."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ According to Olaf Jansen, in the beginning this old world of ours was
+ created solely for the "within" world, where are located the four great
+ rivers&mdash;the Euphrates, the Pison, the Gihon and the Hiddekel. These
+ same names of rivers, when applied to streams on the "outside" surface of
+ the earth, are purely traditional from an antiquity beyond the memory of
+ man.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ On the top of a high mountain, near the fountain-head of these four
+ rivers, Olaf Jansen, the Norseman, claims to have discovered the long-lost
+ "Garden of Eden," the veritable navel of the earth, and to have spent over
+ two years studying and reconnoitering in this marvelous "within" land,
+ exuberant with stupendous plant life and abounding in giant animals; a
+ land where the people live to be centuries old, after the order of
+ Methuselah and other Biblical characters; a region where one-quarter of
+ the "inner" surface is water and three-quarters land; where there are
+ large oceans and many rivers and lakes; where the cities are superlative
+ in construction and magnificence; where modes of transportation are as far
+ in advance of ours as we with our boasted achievements are in advance of
+ the inhabitants of "darkest Africa."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The distance directly across the space from inner surface to inner surface
+ is about six hundred miles less than the recognized diameter of the earth.
+ In the identical center of this vast vacuum is the seat of electricity&mdash;a
+ mammoth ball of dull red fire&mdash;not startlingly brilliant, but
+ surrounded by a white, mild, luminous cloud, giving out uniform warmth,
+ and held in its place in the center of this internal space by the
+ immutable law of gravitation. This electrical cloud is known to the people
+ "within" as the abode of "The Smoky God." They believe it to be the throne
+ of "The Most High."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Olaf Jansen reminded me of how, in the old college days, we were all
+ familiar with the laboratory demonstrations of centrifugal motion, which
+ clearly proved that, if the earth were a solid, the rapidity of its
+ revolution upon its axis would tear it into a thousand fragments.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The old Norseman also maintained that from the farthest points of land on
+ the islands of Spitzbergen and Franz Josef Land, flocks of geese may be
+ seen annually flying still farther northward, just as the sailors and
+ explorers record in their log-books. No scientist has yet been audacious
+ enough to attempt to explain, even to his own satisfaction, toward what
+ lands these winged fowls are guided by their subtle instinct. However,
+ Olaf Jansen has given us a most reasonable explanation.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The presence of the open sea in the Northland is also explained. Olaf
+ Jansen claims that the northern aperture, intake or hole, so to speak, is
+ about fourteen hundred miles across. In connection with this, let us read
+ what Explorer Nansen writes, on page 288 of his book: "I have never had
+ such a splendid sail. On to the north, steadily north, with a good wind,
+ as fast as steam and sail can take us, an open sea mile after mile, watch
+ after watch, through these unknown regions, always clearer and clearer of
+ ice, one might almost say: 'How long will it last?' The eye always turns
+ to the northward as one paces the bridge. It is gazing into the future.
+ But there is always the same dark sky ahead which means open sea." Again,
+ the Norwood Review of England, in its issue of May 10, 1884, says: "We do
+ not admit that there is ice up to the Pole&mdash;once inside the great ice
+ barrier, a new world breaks upon the explorer, the climate is mild like
+ that of England, and, afterward, balmy as the Greek Isles."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Some of the rivers "within," Olaf Jansen claims, are larger than our
+ Mississippi and Amazon rivers combined, in point of volume of water
+ carried; indeed their greatness is occasioned by their width and depth
+ rather than their length, and it is at the mouths of these mighty rivers,
+ as they flow northward and southward along the inside surface of the
+ earth, that mammoth icebergs are found, some of them fifteen and twenty
+ miles wide and from forty to one hundred miles in length.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Is it not strange that there has never been an iceberg encountered either
+ in the Arctic or Antarctic Ocean that is not composed of fresh water?
+ Modern scientists claim that freezing eliminates the salt, but Olaf Jansen
+ claims differently.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Ancient Hindoo, Japanese and Chinese writings, as well as the
+ hieroglyphics of the extinct races of the North American continent, all
+ speak of the custom of sun-worshiping, and it is possible, in the
+ startling light of Olaf Jansen's revelations, that the people of the inner
+ world, lured away by glimpses of the sun as it shone upon the inner
+ surface of the earth, either from the northern or the southern opening,
+ became dissatisfied with "The Smoky God," the great pillar or mother cloud
+ of electricity, and, weary of their continuously mild and pleasant
+ atmosphere, followed the brighter light, and were finally led beyond the
+ ice belt and scattered over the "outer" surface of the earth, through
+ Asia, Europe, North America and, later, Africa, Australia and South
+ America. (1)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (1 The following quotation is significant; "It follows that man issuing
+ from a mother-region still undetermined but which a number of
+ considerations indicate to have been in the North, has radiated in several
+ directions; that his migrations have been constantly from North to South."&mdash;M.
+ le Marquis G. de Saporta, in Popular Science Monthly, October, 1883, page
+ 753.)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It is a notable fact that, as we approach the Equator, the stature of the
+ human race grows less. But the Patagonians of South America are probably
+ the only aborigines from the center of the earth who came out through the
+ aperture usually designated as the South Pole, and they are called the
+ giant race.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Olaf Jansen avers that, in the beginning, the world was created by the
+ Great Architect of the Universe, so that man might dwell upon its "inside"
+ surface, which has ever since been the habitation of the "chosen."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ They who were driven out of the "Garden of Eden" brought their traditional
+ history with them.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The history of the people living "within" contains a narrative suggesting
+ the story of Noah and the ark with which we are familiar. He sailed away,
+ as did Columbus, from a certain port, to a strange land he had heard of
+ far to the northward, carrying with him all manner of beasts of the fields
+ and fowls of the air, but was never heard of afterward.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ On the northern boundaries of Alaska, and still more frequently on the
+ Siberian coast, are found boneyards containing tusks of ivory in
+ quantities so great as to suggest the burying-places of antiquity. From
+ Olaf Jansen's account, they have come from the great prolific animal life
+ that abounds in the fields and forests and on the banks of numerous rivers
+ of the Inner World. The materials were caught in the ocean currents, or
+ were carried on ice-floes, and have accumulated like driftwood on the
+ Siberian coast. This has been going on for ages, and hence these
+ mysterious bone-yards.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ On this subject William F. Warren, in his book already cited, pages 297
+ and 298, says: "The Arctic rocks tell of a lost Atlantis more wonderful
+ than Plato's. The fossil ivory beds of Siberia excel everything of the
+ kind in the world. From the days of Pliny, at least, they have constantly
+ been undergoing exploitation, and still they are the chief headquarters of
+ supply. The remains of mammoths are so abundant that, as Gratacap says,
+ 'the northern islands of Siberia seem built up of crowded bones.' Another
+ scientific writer, speaking of the islands of New Siberia, northward of
+ the mouth of the River Lena, uses this language: 'Large quantities of
+ ivory are dug out of the ground every year. Indeed, some of the islands
+ are believed to be nothing but an accumulation of drift-timber and the
+ bodies of mammoths and other antediluvian animals frozen together.' From
+ this we may infer that, during the years that have elapsed since the
+ Russian conquest of Siberia, useful tusks from more than twenty thousand
+ mammoths have been collected."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ But now for the story of Olaf Jansen. I give it in detail, as set down by
+ himself in manuscript, and woven into the tale, just as he placed them,
+ are certain quotations from recent works on Arctic exploration, showing
+ how carefully the old Norseman compared with his own experiences those of
+ other voyagers to the frozen North. Thus wrote the disciple of Odin and
+ Thor:
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <a name="link2H_PART2" id="link2H_PART2">
+ <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
+ </p>
+ <div style="height: 4em;">
+ <br /><br /><br /><br />
+ </div>
+ <h2>
+ PART TWO. OLAF JANSEN'S STORY
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ MY name is Olaf Jansen. I am a Norwegian, although I was born in the
+ little seafaring Russian town of Uleaborg, on the eastern coast of the
+ Gulf of Bothnia, the northern arm of the Baltic Sea.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ My parents were on a fishing cruise in the Gulf of Bothnia, and put into
+ this Russian town of Uleaborg at the time of my birth, being the
+ twenty-seventh day of October, 1811.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ My father, Jens Jansen, was born at Rodwig on the Scandinavian coast, near
+ the Lofoden Islands, but after marrying made his home at Stockholm,
+ because my mother's people resided in that city. When seven years old, I
+ began going with my father on his fishing trips along the Scandinavian
+ coast.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Early in life I displayed an aptitude for books, and at the age of nine
+ years was placed in a private school in Stockholm, remaining there until I
+ was fourteen. After this I made regular trips with my father on all his
+ fishing voyages.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ My father was a man fully six feet three in height, and weighed over
+ fifteen stone, a typical Norseman of the most rugged sort, and capable of
+ more endurance than any other man I have ever known. He possessed the
+ gentleness of a woman in tender little ways, yet his determination and
+ will-power were beyond description. His will admitted of no defeat.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I was in my nineteenth year when we started on what proved to be our last
+ trip as fishermen, and which resulted in the strange story that shall be
+ given to the world,&mdash;but not until I have finished my earthly
+ pilgrimage.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I dare not allow the facts as I know them to be published while I am
+ living, for fear of further humiliation, confinement and suffering. First
+ of all, I was put in irons by the captain of the whaling vessel that
+ rescued me, for no other reason than that I told the truth about the
+ marvelous discoveries made by my father and myself. But this was far from
+ being the end of my tortures.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ After four years and eight months' absence I reached Stockholm, only to
+ find my mother had died the previous year, and the property left by my
+ parents in the possession of my mother's people, but it was at once made
+ over to me.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ All might have been well, had I erased from my memory the story of our
+ adventure and of my father's terrible death.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Finally, one day I told the story in detail to my uncle, Gustaf Osterlind,
+ a man of considerable property, and urged him to fit out an expedition for
+ me to make another voyage to the strange land.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ At first I thought he favored my project. He seemed interested, and
+ invited me to go before certain officials and explain to them, as I had to
+ him, the story of our travels and discoveries. Imagine my disappointment
+ and horror when, upon the conclusion of my narrative, certain papers were
+ signed by my uncle, and, without warning, I found myself arrested and
+ hurried away to dismal and fearful confinement in a madhouse, where I
+ remained for twenty-eight years&mdash;long, tedious, frightful years of
+ suffering!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I never ceased to assert my sanity, and to protest against the injustice
+ of my confinement. Finally, on the seventeenth of October, 1862, I was
+ released. My uncle was dead, and the friends of my youth were now
+ strangers. Indeed, a man over fifty years old, whose only known record is
+ that of a madman, has no friends.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I was at a loss to know what to do for a living, but instinctively turned
+ toward the harbor where fishing boats in great numbers were anchored, and
+ within a week I had shipped with a fisherman by the name of Yan Hansen,
+ who was starting on a long fishing cruise to the Lofoden Islands.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Here my earlier years of training proved of the very greatest advantage,
+ especially in enabling me to make myself useful. This was but the
+ beginning of other trips, and by frugal economy I was, in a few years,
+ able to own a fishing-brig of my own. For twenty-seven years thereafter I
+ followed the sea as a fisherman, five years working for others, and the
+ last twenty-two for myself.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ During all these years I was a most diligent student of books, as well as
+ a hard worker at my business, but I took great care not to mention to
+ anyone the story concerning the discoveries made by my father and myself.
+ Even at this late day I would be fearful of having any one see or know the
+ things I am writing, and the records and maps I have in my keeping. When
+ my days on earth are finished, I shall leave maps and records that will
+ enlighten and, I hope, benefit mankind.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The memory of my long confinement with maniacs, and all the horrible
+ anguish and sufferings are too vivid to warrant my taking further chances.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In 1889 I sold out my fishing boats, and found I had accumulated a fortune
+ quite sufficient to keep me the remainder of my life. I then came to
+ America.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ For a dozen years my home was in Illinois, near Batavia, where I gathered
+ most of the books in my present library, though I brought many choice
+ volumes from Stockholm. Later, I came to Los Angeles, arriving here March
+ 4, 1901. The date I well remember, as it was President McKinley's second
+ inauguration day. I bought this humble home and determined, here in the
+ privacy of my own abode, sheltered by my own vine and fig-tree, and with
+ my books about me, to make maps and drawings of the new lands we had
+ discovered, and also to write the story in detail from the time my father
+ and I left Stockholm until the tragic event that parted us in the
+ Antarctic Ocean.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I well remember that we left Stockholm in our fishing-sloop on the third
+ day of April, 1829, and sailed to the southward, leaving Gothland Island
+ to the left and Oeland Island to the right. A few days later we succeeded
+ in doubling Sandhommar Point, and made our way through the sound which
+ separates Denmark from the Scandinavian coast. In due time we put in at
+ the town of Christiansand, where we rested two days, and then started
+ around the Scandinavian coast to the westward, bound for the Lofoden
+ Islands.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ My father was in high spirit, because of the excellent and gratifying
+ returns he had received from our last catch by marketing at Stockholm,
+ instead of selling at one of the seafaring towns along the Scandinavian
+ coast. He was especially pleased with the sale of some ivory tusks that he
+ had found on the west coast of Franz Joseph Land during one of his
+ northern cruises the previous year, and he expressed the hope that this
+ time we might again be fortunate enough to load our little fishing-sloop
+ with ivory, instead of cod, herring, mackerel and salmon.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We put in at Hammerfest, latitude seventy-one degrees and forty minutes,
+ for a few days' rest. Here we remained one week, laying in an extra supply
+ of provisions and several casks of drinking-water, and then sailed toward
+ Spitzbergen.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ For the first few days we had an open sea and a favoring wind, and then we
+ encountered much ice and many icebergs. A vessel larger than our little
+ fishing-sloop could not possibly have threaded its way among the labyrinth
+ of icebergs or squeezed through the barely open channels. These monster
+ bergs presented an endless succession of crystal palaces, of massive
+ cathedrals and fantastic mountain ranges, grim and sentinel-like,
+ immovable as some towering cliff of solid rock, standing; silent as a
+ sphinx, resisting the restless waves of a fretful sea.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ After many narrow escapes, we arrived at Spitzbergen on the 23d of June,
+ and anchored at Wijade Bay for a short time, where we were quite
+ successful in our catches. We then lifted anchor and sailed through the
+ Hinlopen Strait, and coasted along the North-East-Land.(2)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (2 It will be remembered that Andree started on his fatal balloon voyage
+ from the northwest coast of Spitzbergen.)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A strong wind came up from the southwest, and my father said that we had
+ better take advantage of it and try to reach Franz Josef Land, where, the
+ year before he had, by accident, found the ivory tusks that had brought
+ him such a good price at Stockholm.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Never, before or since, have I seen so many sea-fowl; they were so
+ numerous that they hid the rocks on the coast line and darkened the sky.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ For several days we sailed along the rocky coast of Franz Josef Land.
+ Finally, a favoring wind came up that enabled us to make the West Coast,
+ and, after sailing twenty-four hours, we came to a beautiful inlet.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ One could hardly believe it was the far Northland. The place was green
+ with growing vegetation, and while the area did not comprise more than one
+ or two acres, yet the air was warm and tranquil. It seemed to be at that
+ point where the Gulf Stream's influence is most keenly felt.(3)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (3 Sir John Barrow, Bart., F.R.S., in his work entitled "Voyages of
+ Discovery and Research Within the Arctic Regions," says on page 57: "Mr.
+ Beechey refers to what has frequently been found and noticed&mdash;the
+ mildness of the temperature on the western coast of Spitzbergen, there
+ being little or no sensation of cold, though the thermometer might be only
+ a few degrees above the freezing-point. The brilliant and lively effect of
+ a clear day, when the sun shines forth with a pure sky, whose azure hue is
+ so intense as to find no parallel even in the boasted Italian sky.")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ On the east coast there were numerous icebergs, yet here we were in open
+ water. Far to the west of us, however, were icepacks, and still farther to
+ the westward the ice appeared like ranges of low hills. In front of us,
+ and directly to the north, lay an open sea.(4)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (4 Captain Kane, on page 299, quoting from Morton's Journal on Monday, the
+ 26th of December, says: "As far as I could see, the open passages were
+ fifteen miles or more wide, with sometimes mashed ice separating them. But
+ it is all small ice, and I think it either drives out to the open space to
+ the north or rots and sinks, as I could see none ahead to the north.")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ My father was an ardent believer in Odin and Thor, and had frequently told
+ me they were gods who came from far beyond the "North Wind."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ There was a tradition, my father explained, that still farther northward
+ was a land more beautiful than any that mortal man had ever known, and
+ that it was inhabited by the "Chosen."(5)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (5 We find the following in "Deutsche Mythologie," page 778, from the pen
+ of Jakob Grimm; "Then, the sons of Bor built in the middle of the universe
+ the city called Asgard, where dwell the gods and their kindred, and from
+ that abode work out so many wondrous things both on the earth and in the
+ heavens above it. There is in that city a place called Illidskjalf, and
+ when Odin is seated there upon his lofty throne he sees over the whole
+ world and discerns all the actions of men.")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ My youthful imagination was fired by the ardor, zeal and religious fervor
+ of my good father, and I exclaimed: "Why not sail to this goodly land? The
+ sky is fair, the wind favorable and the sea open."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Even now I can see the expression of pleasurable surprise on his
+ countenance as he turned toward me and asked: "My son, are you willing to
+ go with me and explore&mdash;to go far beyond where man has ever
+ ventured?" I answered affirmatively. "Very well," he replied. "May the god
+ Odin protect us!" and, quickly adjusting the sails, he glanced at our
+ compass, turned the prow in due northerly direction through an open
+ channel, and our voyage had begun.(6)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (6 Hall writes, on page 288: "On the 23rd of January the two Esquimaux,
+ accompanied by two of the seamen, went to Cape Lupton. They reported a sea
+ of open water extending as far as the eye could reach.")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The sun was low in the horizon, as it was still the early summer. Indeed,
+ we had almost four months of day ahead of us before the frozen night could
+ come on again.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Our little fishing-sloop sprang forward as if eager as ourselves for
+ adventure. Within thirty-six hours we were out of sight of the highest
+ point on the coast line of Franz Josef Land. We seemed to be in a strong
+ current running north by northeast. Far to the right and to the left of us
+ were icebergs, but our little sloop bore down on the narrows and passed
+ through channels and out into open seas&mdash;channels so narrow in places
+ that, had our craft been other than small, we never could have gotten
+ through.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ On the third day we came to an island. Its shores were washed by an open
+ sea. My father determined to land and explore for a day. This new land was
+ destitute of timber, but we found a large accumulation of drift-wood on
+ the northern shore. Some of the trunks of the trees were forty feet long
+ and two feet in diameter.(7)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (7 Greely tells us in vol. 1, page 100, that: "Privates Connell and
+ Frederick found a large coniferous tree on the beach, just above the
+ extreme high-water mark. It was nearly thirty inches in circumference,
+ some thirty feet long, and had apparently been carried to that point by a
+ current within a couple of years. A portion of it was cut up for
+ fire-wood, and for the first time in that valley, a bright, cheery
+ camp-fire gave comfort to man.")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ After one day's exploration of the coast line of this island, we lifted
+ anchor and turned our prow to the north in an open sea.(8)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (8 Dr. Kane says, on page 379 of his works: "I cannot imagine what becomes
+ of the ice. A strong current sets in constantly to the north; but, from
+ altitudes of more than five hundred feet, I saw only narrow strips of ice,
+ with great spaces of open water, from ten to fifteen miles in breadth,
+ between them. It must, therefore, either go to an open space in the north,
+ or dissolve.")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I remember that neither my father nor myself had tasted food for almost
+ thirty hours. Perhaps this was because of the tension of excitement about
+ our strange voyage in waters farther north, my father said, than anyone
+ had ever before been. Active mentality had dulled the demands of the
+ physical needs.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Instead of the cold being intense as we had anticipated, it was really
+ warmer and more pleasant than it had been while in Hammerfest on the north
+ coast of Norway, some six weeks before.(9)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (9 Captain Peary's second voyage relates another circumstance which may
+ serve to confirm a conjecture which has long been maintained by some, that
+ an open sea, free of ice, exists at or near the Pole. "On the second of
+ November," says Peary, "the wind freshened up to a gale from north by
+ west, lowered the thermometer before midnight to 5 degrees, whereas, a
+ rise of wind at Melville Island was generally accompanied by a
+ simultaneous rise in the thermometer at low temperatures. May not this,"
+ he asks, "be occasioned by the wind blowing over an open sea in the
+ quarter from which the wind blows? And tend to confirm the opinion that at
+ or near the Pole an open sea exists?")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We both frankly admitted that we were very hungry, and forthwith I
+ prepared a substantial meal from our well-stored larder. When we had
+ partaken heartily of the repast, I told my father I believed I would
+ sleep, as I was beginning to feel quite drowsy. "Very well," he replied,
+ "I will keep the watch."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I have no way to determine how long I slept; I only know that I was rudely
+ awakened by a terrible commotion of the sloop. To my surprise, I found my
+ father sleeping soundly. I cried out lustily to him, and starting up, he
+ sprang quickly to his feet. Indeed, had he not instantly clutched the
+ rail, he would certainly have been thrown into the seething waves.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A fierce snow-storm was raging. The wind was directly astern, driving our
+ sloop at a terrific speed, and was threatening every moment to capsize us.
+ There was no time to lose, the sails had to be lowered immediately. Our
+ boat was writhing in convulsions. A few icebergs we knew were on either
+ side of us, but fortunately the channel was open directly to the north.
+ But would it remain so? In front of us, girding the horizon from left to
+ right, was a vaporish fog or mist, black as Egyptian night at the water's
+ edge, and white like a steam-cloud toward the top, which was finally lost
+ to view as it blended with the great white flakes of falling snow. Whether
+ it covered a treacherous iceberg, or some other hidden obstacle against
+ which our little sloop would dash and send us to a watery grave, or was
+ merely the phenomenon of an Arctic fog, there was no way to determine.(10)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (10 On page 284 of his works, Hall writes: "From the top of Providence
+ Berg, a dark fog was seen to the north, indicating water. At 10 a. m.
+ three of the men (Kruger, Nindemann and Hobby) went to Cape Lupton to
+ ascertain if possible the extent of the open water. On their return they
+ reported several open spaces and much young ice&mdash;not more than a day
+ old, so thin that it was easily broken by throwing pieces of ice upon
+ it.")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ By what miracle we escaped being dashed to utter destruction, I do not
+ know. I remember our little craft creaked and groaned, as if its joints
+ were breaking. It rocked and staggered to and fro as if clutched by some
+ fierce undertow of whirlpool or maelstrom.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Fortunately our compass had been fastened with long screws to a crossbeam.
+ Most of our provisions, however, were tumbled out and swept away from the
+ deck of the cuddy, and had we not taken the precaution at the very
+ beginning to tie ourselves firmly to the masts of the sloop, we should
+ have been swept into the lashing sea.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Above the deafening tumult of the raging waves, I heard my father's voice.
+ "Be courageous, my son," he shouted, "Odin is the god of the waters, the
+ companion of the brave, and he is with us. Fear not."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To me it seemed there was no possibility of our escaping a horrible death.
+ The little sloop was shipping water, the snow was falling so fast as to be
+ blinding, and the waves were tumbling over our counters in reckless
+ white-sprayed fury. There was no telling what instant we should be dashed
+ against some drifting ice-pack. The tremendous swells would heave us up to
+ the very peaks of mountainous waves, then plunge us down into the depths
+ of the sea's trough as if our fishing-sloop were a fragile shell. Gigantic
+ white-capped waves, like veritable walls, fenced us in, fore and aft.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ This terrible nerve-racking ordeal, with its nameless horrors of suspense
+ and agony of fear indescribable, continued for more than three hours, and
+ all the time we were being driven forward at fierce speed. Then suddenly,
+ as if growing weary of its frantic exertions, the wind began to lessen its
+ fury and by degrees to die down.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ At last we were in a perfect calm. The fog mist had also disappeared, and
+ before us lay an iceless channel perhaps ten or fifteen miles wide, with a
+ few icebergs far away to our right, and an intermittent archipelago of
+ smaller ones to the left.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I watched my father closely, determined to remain silent until he spoke.
+ Presently he untied the rope from his waist and, without saying a word,
+ began working the pumps, which fortunately were not damaged, relieving the
+ sloop of the water it had shipped in the madness of the storm.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ He put up the sloop's sails as calmly as if casting a fishing-net, and
+ then remarked that we were ready for a favoring wind when it came. His
+ courage and persistence were truly remarkable.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ On investigation we found less than one-third of our provisions remaining,
+ while to our utter dismay, we discovered that our water-casks had been
+ swept overboard during the violent plungings of our boat.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Two of our water-casks were in the main hold, but both were empty. We had
+ a fair supply of food, but no fresh water. I realized at once the
+ awfulness of our position. Presently I was seized with a consuming thirst.
+ "It is indeed bad," remarked my father. "However, let us dry our
+ bedraggled clothing, for we are soaked to the skin. Trust to the god Odin,
+ my son. Do not give up hope."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The sun was beating down slantingly, as if we were in a southern latitude,
+ instead of in the far Northland. It was swinging around, its orbit ever
+ visible and rising higher and higher each day, frequently mist-covered,
+ yet always peering through the lacework of clouds like some fretful eye of
+ fate, guarding the mysterious Northland and jealously watching the pranks
+ of man. Far to our right the rays decking the prisms of icebergs were
+ gorgeous. Their reflections emitted flashes of garnet, of diamond, of
+ sapphire. A pyrotechnic panorama of countless colors and shapes, while
+ below could be seen the green-tinted sea, and above, the purple sky.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <a name="link2H_PART3" id="link2H_PART3">
+ <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
+ </p>
+ <div style="height: 4em;">
+ <br /><br /><br /><br />
+ </div>
+ <h2>
+ PART THREE. BEYOND THE NORTH WIND
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ I TRIED to forget my thirst by busying myself with bringing up some food
+ and an empty vessel from the hold. Reaching over the side-rail, I filled
+ the vessel with water for the purpose of laving my hands and face. To my
+ astonishment, when the water came in contact with my lips, I could taste
+ no salt. I was startled by the discovery. "Father!" I fairly gasped, "the
+ water, the water; it is fresh!" "What, Olaf?" exclaimed my father,
+ glancing hastily around. "Surely you are mistaken. There is no land. You
+ are going mad." "But taste it!" I cried.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And thus we made the discovery that the water was indeed fresh, absolutely
+ so, without the least briny taste or even the suspicion of a salty flavor.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We forthwith filled our two remaining water-casks, and my father declared
+ it was a heavenly dispensation of mercy from the gods Odin and Thor.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We were almost beside ourselves with joy, but hunger bade us end our
+ enforced fast. Now that we had found fresh water in the open sea, what
+ might we not expect in this strange latitude where ship had never before
+ sailed and the splash of an oar had never been heard? (11)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (11 In vol. I, page 196, Nansen writes: "It is a peculiar phenomenon,&mdash;this
+ dead water. We had at present a better opportunity of studying it than we
+ desired. It occurs where a surface layer of fresh water rests upon the
+ salt water of the sea, and this fresh water is carried along with the ship
+ gliding on the heavier sea beneath it as if on a fixed foundation. The
+ difference between the two strata was in this case so great that while we
+ had drinking water on the surface, the water we got from the bottom cock
+ of the engine-room was far too salt to be used for the boiler.")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We had scarcely appeased our hunger when a breeze began filling the idle
+ sails, and, glancing at the compass, we found the northern point pressing
+ hard against the glass.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In response to my surprise, my father said, "I have heard of this before;
+ it is what they call the dipping of the needle."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We loosened the compass and turned it at right angles with the surface of
+ the sea before its point would free itself from the glass and point
+ according to unmolested attraction. It shifted uneasily, and seemed as
+ unsteady as a drunken man, but finally pointed a course.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Before this we thought the wind was carrying us north by northwest, but,
+ with the needle free, we discovered, if it could be relied upon, that we
+ were sailing slightly north by northeast. Our course, however, was ever
+ tending northward.(12)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (12 In volume II, pages 18 and 19, Nansen writes about the inclination of
+ the needle. Speaking of Johnson, his aide: "One day&mdash;it was November
+ 24&mdash;he came in to supper a little after six o'clock, quite alarmed,
+ and said: 'There has just been a singular inclination of the needle in
+ twenty-four degrees. And remarkably enough, its northern extremity pointed
+ to the east.'"
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We again find in Peary's first voyage&mdash;page 67,&mdash;the following:
+ "It had been observed that from the moment they had entered Lancaster
+ Sound, the motion of the compass needle was very sluggish, and both this
+ and its deviation increased as they progressed to the westward, and
+ continued to do so in descending this inlet. Having reached latitude 73
+ degrees, they witnessed for the first time the curious phenomenon of the
+ directive power of the needle becoming so weak as to be completely
+ overcome by the attraction of the ship, so that the needle might now be
+ said to point to the north pole of the ship.")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The sea was serenely smooth, with hardly a choppy wave, and the wind brisk
+ and exhilarating. The sun's rays, while striking us aslant, furnished
+ tranquil warmth. And thus time wore on day after day, and we found from
+ the record in our logbook, we had been sailing eleven days since the storm
+ in the open sea.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ By strictest economy, our food was holding out fairly well, but beginning
+ to run low. In the meantime, one of our casks of water had been exhausted,
+ and my father said: "We will fill it again." But, to our dismay, we found
+ the water was now as salt as in the region of the Lofoden Islands off the
+ coast of Norway. This necessitated our being extremely careful of the
+ remaining cask.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I found myself wanting to sleep much of the time; whether it was the
+ effect of the exciting experience of sailing in unknown waters, or the
+ relaxation from the awful excitement incident to our adventure in a storm
+ at sea, or due to want of food, I could not say.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I frequently lay down on the bunker of our little sloop, and looked far up
+ into the blue dome of the sky; and, notwithstanding the sun was shining
+ far away in the east, I always saw a single star overhead. For several
+ days, when I looked for this star, it was always there directly above us.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It was now, according to our reckoning, about the first of August. The sun
+ was high in the heavens, and was so bright that I could no longer see the
+ one lone star that attracted my attention a few days earlier.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ One day about this time, my father startled me by calling my attention to
+ a novel sight far in front of us, almost at the horizon. "It is a mock
+ sun," exclaimed my father. "I have read of them; it is called a reflection
+ or mirage. It will soon pass away."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ But this dull-red, false sun, as we supposed it to be, did not pass away
+ for several hours; and while we were unconscious of its emitting any rays
+ of light, still there was no time thereafter when we could not sweep the
+ horizon in front and locate the illumination of the so-called false sun,
+ during a period of at least twelve hours out of every twenty-four.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Clouds and mists would at times almost, but never entirely, hide its
+ location. Gradually it seemed to climb higher in the horizon of the
+ uncertain purply sky as we advanced.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It could hardly be said to resemble the sun, except in its circular shape,
+ and when not obscured by clouds or the ocean mists, it had a hazy-red,
+ bronzed appearance, which would change to a white light like a luminous
+ cloud, as if reflecting some greater light beyond.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We finally agreed in our discussion of this smoky furnace-colored sun,
+ that, whatever the cause of the phenomenon, it was not a reflection of our
+ sun, but a planet of some sort&mdash;a reality.(13)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (13 Nansen, on page 394, says: "To-day another noteworthy thing happened,
+ which was that about mid-day we saw the sun, or to be more correct, an
+ image of the sun, for it was only a mirage. A peculiar impression was
+ produced by the sight of that glowing fire lit just above the outermost
+ edge of the ice. According to the enthusiastic descriptions given by many
+ Arctic travelers of the first appearance of this god of life after the
+ long winter night, the impression ought to be one of jubilant excitement;
+ but it was not so in my case. We had not expected to see it for some days
+ yet, so that my feeling was rather one of pain, of disappointment that we
+ must have drifted farther south than we thought. So it was with pleasure I
+ soon discovered that it could not be the sun itself. The mirage was at
+ first a flattened-out, glowing red, streak of fire on the horizon; later
+ there were two streaks, the one above the other, with a dark space
+ between; and from the maintop I could see four, or even five, such
+ horizontal lines directly over one another, all of equal length, as if one
+ could only imagine a square, dull-red sun, with horizontal dark streaks
+ across it.")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ One day soon after this, I felt exceedingly drowsy, and fell into a sound
+ sleep. But it seemed that I was almost immediately aroused by my father's
+ vigorous shaking of me by the shoulder and saying: "Olaf, awaken; there is
+ land in sight!"
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I sprang to my feet, and oh! joy unspeakable! There, far in the distance,
+ yet directly in our path, were lands jutting boldly into the sea. The
+ shore-line stretched far away to the right of us, as far as the eye could
+ see, and all along the sandy beach were waves breaking into choppy foam,
+ receding, then going forward again, ever chanting in monotonous thunder
+ tones the song of the deep. The banks were covered with trees and
+ vegetation.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I cannot express my feeling of exultation at this discovery. My father
+ stood motionless, with his hand on the tiller, looking straight ahead,
+ pouring out his heart in thankful prayer and thanksgiving to the gods Odin
+ and Thor.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In the meantime, a net which we found in the stowage had been cast, and we
+ caught a few fish that materially added to our dwindling stock of
+ provisions.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The compass, which we had fastened back in its place, in fear of another
+ storm, was still pointing due north, and moving on its pivot, just as it
+ had at Stockholm. The dipping of the needle had ceased. What could this
+ mean? Then, too, our many days of sailing had certainly carried us far
+ past the North Pole. And yet the needle continued to point north. We were
+ sorely perplexed, for surely our direction was now south.(14)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (14 Peary's first voyage, pages 69 and 70, says:
+ </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+ "On reaching Sir Byam Martin's Island, the nearest to
+ Melville Island, the latitude of the place of observation was
+ 75 degrees - 09' - 23", and the longitude 103
+ degrees - 44' - 37"; the dip of the magnetic needle 88
+ degrees - 25' - 56" west in the longitude of 91
+ degrees - 48', where the last observations on the shore
+ had been made, to 165 degrees - 50' - 09", east, at
+ their present station, so that we had," says Peary, "in sailing
+ over the space included between these two meridians, crossed
+ immediately northward of the magnetic pole, and had undoubtedly
+ passed over one of those spots upon the globe where the needle
+ would have been found to vary 180 degrees, or in other
+ words, where the North Pole would have pointed to the south.")
+</pre>
+ <p>
+ We sailed for three days along the shoreline, then came to the mouth of a
+ fjord or river of immense size. It seemed more like a great bay, and into
+ this we turned our fishing-craft, the direction being slightly northeast
+ of south. By the assistance of a fretful wind that came to our aid about
+ twelve hours out of every twenty-four, we continued to make our way
+ inland, into what afterward proved to be a mighty river, and which we
+ learned was called by the inhabitants Hiddekel.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We continued our journey for ten days thereafter, and found we had
+ fortunately attained a distance inland where ocean tides no longer
+ affected the water, which had become fresh.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The discovery came none too soon, for our remaining cask of water was
+ well-nigh exhausted. We lost no time in replenishing our casks, and
+ continued to sail farther up the river when the wind was favorable.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Along the banks great forests miles in extent could be seen stretching
+ away on the shore-line. The trees were of enormous size. We landed after
+ anchoring near a sandy beach, and waded ashore, and were rewarded by
+ finding a quantity of nuts that were very palatable and satisfying to
+ hunger, and a welcome change from the monotony of our stock of provisions.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It was about the first of September, over five months, we calculated,
+ since our leave-taking from Stockholm. Suddenly we were frightened almost
+ out of our wits by hearing in the far distance the singing of people. Very
+ soon thereafter we discovered a huge ship gliding down the river directly
+ toward us. Those aboard were singing in one mighty chorus that, echoing
+ from bank to bank, sounded like a thousand voices, filling the whole
+ universe with quivering melody. The accompaniment was played on stringed
+ instruments not unlike our harps.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It was a larger ship than any we had ever seen, and was differently
+ constructed.(15)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (15 Asiatic Mythology,&mdash;page 240, "Paradise found"&mdash;from
+ translation by Sayce, in a book called "Records of the Past," we were told
+ of a "dwelling" which "the gods created for" the first human beings,&mdash;a
+ dwelling in which they "became great" and "increased in numbers," and the
+ location of which is described in words exactly corresponding to those of
+ Iranian, Indian, Chinese, Eddaic and Aztecan literature; namely, "in the
+ center of the earth."&mdash;Warren.)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ At this particular time our sloop was becalmed, and not far from the
+ shore. The bank of the river, covered with mammoth trees, rose up several
+ hundred feet in beautiful fashion. We seemed to be on the edge of some
+ primeval forest that doubtless stretched far inland.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The immense craft paused, and almost immediately a boat was lowered and
+ six men of gigantic stature rowed to our little fishing-sloop. They spoke
+ to us in a strange language. We knew from their manner, however, that they
+ were not unfriendly. They talked a great deal among themselves, and one of
+ them laughed immoderately, as though in finding us a queer discovery had
+ been made. One of them spied our compass, and it seemed to interest them
+ more than any other part of our sloop.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Finally, the leader motioned as if to ask whether we were willing to leave
+ our craft to go on board their ship. "What say you, my son?" asked my
+ father. "They cannot do any more than kill us."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "They seem to be kindly disposed," I replied, "although what terrible
+ giants! They must be the select six of the kingdom's crack regiment. Just
+ look at their great size."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "We may as well go willingly as be taken by force," said my father,
+ smiling, "for they are certainly able to capture us." Thereupon he made
+ known, by signs, that we were ready to accompany them.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Within a few minutes we were on board the ship, and half an hour later our
+ little fishing-craft had been lifted bodily out of the water by a strange
+ sort of hook and tackle, and set on board as a curiosity.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ There were several hundred people on board this, to us, mammoth ship,
+ which we discovered was called "The Naz," meaning, as we afterward
+ learned, "Pleasure," or to give a more proper interpretation, "Pleasure
+ Excursion" ship.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ If my father and I were curiously observed by the ship's occupants, this
+ strange race of giants offered us an equal amount of wonderment.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ There was not a single man aboard who would not have measured fully twelve
+ feet in height. They all wore full beards, not particularly long, but
+ seemingly short-cropped. They had mild and beautiful faces, exceedingly
+ fair, with ruddy complexions. The hair and beard of some were black,
+ others sandy, and still others yellow. The captain, as we designated the
+ dignitary in command of the great vessel, was fully a head taller than any
+ of his companions. The women averaged from ten to eleven feet in height.
+ Their features were especially regular and refined, while their complexion
+ was of a most delicate tint heightened by a healthful glow.(16)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (16 "According to all procurable data, that spot at the era of man's
+ appearance upon the stage was in the now lost 'Miocene continent,' which
+ then surrounded the Arctic Pole. That in that true, original Eden some of
+ the early generations of men attained to a stature and longevity unequaled
+ in any countries known to postdiluvian history is by no means
+ scientifically incredible."&mdash;Wm. F. Warren, "Paradise Found," p.
+ 284.)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Both men and women seemed to possess that particular ease of manner which
+ we deem a sign of good breeding, and, notwithstanding their huge statures,
+ there was nothing about them suggesting awkwardness. As I was a lad in
+ only my nineteenth year, I was doubtless looked upon as a true Tom Thumb.
+ My father's six feet three did not lift the top of his head above the
+ waist line of these people.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Each one seemed to vie with the others in extending courtesies and showing
+ kindness to us, but all laughed heartily, I remember, when they had to
+ improvise chairs for my father and myself to sit at table. They were
+ richly attired in a costume peculiar to themselves, and very attractive.
+ The men were clothed in handsomely embroidered tunics of silk and satin
+ and belted at the waist. They wore knee-breeches and stockings of a fine
+ texture, while their feet were encased in sandals adorned with gold
+ buckles. We early discovered that gold was one of the most common metals
+ known, and that it was used extensively in decoration.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Strange as it may seem, neither my father nor myself felt the least bit of
+ solicitude for our safety. "We have come into our own," my father said to
+ me. "This is the fulfillment of the tradition told me by my father and my
+ father's father, and still back for many generations of our race. This is,
+ assuredly, the land beyond the North Wind."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We seemed to make such an impression on the party that we were given
+ specially into the charge of one of the men, Jules Galdea, and his wife,
+ for the purpose of being educated in their language; and we, on our part,
+ were just as eager to learn as they were to instruct.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ At the captain's command, the vessel was swung cleverly about, and began
+ retracing its course up the river. The machinery, while noiseless, was
+ very powerful.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The banks and trees on either side seemed to rush by. The ship's speed, at
+ times, surpassed that of any railroad train on which I have ever ridden,
+ even here in America. It was wonderful.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In the meantime we had lost sight of the sun's rays, but we found a
+ radiance "within" emanating from the dull-red sun which had already
+ attracted our attention, now giving out a white light seemingly from a
+ cloud-bank far away in front of us. It dispensed a greater light, I should
+ say, than two full moons on the clearest night.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In twelve hours this cloud of whiteness would pass out of sight as if
+ eclipsed, and the twelve hours following corresponded with our night. We
+ early learned that these strange people were worshipers of this great
+ cloud of night. It was "The Smoky God" of the "Inner World."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The ship was equipped with a mode of illumination which I now presume was
+ electricity, but neither my father nor myself were sufficiently skilled in
+ mechanics to understand whence came the power to operate the ship, or to
+ maintain the soft beautiful lights that answered the same purpose of our
+ present methods of lighting the streets of our cities, our houses and
+ places of business.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It must be remembered, the time of which I write was the autumn of 1829,
+ and we of the "outside" surface of the earth knew nothing then, so to
+ speak, of electricity.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The electrically surcharged condition of the air was a constant vitalizer.
+ I never felt better in my life than during the two years my father and I
+ sojourned on the inside of the earth.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To resume my narrative of events; The ship on which we were sailing came
+ to a stop two days after we had been taken on board. My father said as
+ nearly as he could judge, we were directly under Stockholm or London. The
+ city we had reached was called "Jehu," signifying a seaport town. The
+ houses were large and beautifully constructed, and quite uniform in
+ appearance, yet without sameness. The principal occupation of the people
+ appeared to be agriculture; the hillsides were covered with vineyards,
+ while the valleys were devoted to the growing of grain.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I never saw such a display of gold. It was everywhere. The door-casings
+ were inlaid and the tables were veneered with sheetings of gold. Domes of
+ the public buildings were of gold. It was used most generously in the
+ finishings of the great temples of music.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Vegetation grew in lavish exuberance, and fruit of all kinds possessed the
+ most delicate flavor. Clusters of grapes four and five feet in length,
+ each grape as large as an orange, and apples larger than a man's head
+ typified the wonderful growth of all things on the "inside" of the earth.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The great redwood trees of California would be considered mere underbrush
+ compared with the giant forest trees extending for miles and miles in all
+ directions. In many directions along the foothills of the mountains vast
+ herds of cattle were seen during the last day of our travel on the river.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We heard much of a city called "Eden," but were kept at "Jehu" for an
+ entire year. By the end of that time we had learned to speak fairly well
+ the language of this strange race of people. Our instructors, Jules Galdea
+ and his wife, exhibited a patience that was truly commendable.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ One day an envoy from the Ruler at "Eden" came to see us, and for two
+ whole days my father and myself were put through a series of surprising
+ questions. They wished to know from whence we came, what sort of people
+ dwelt "without," what God we worshiped, our religious beliefs, the mode of
+ living in our strange land, and a thousand other things.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The compass which we had brought with us attracted especial attention. My
+ father and I commented between ourselves on the fact that the compass
+ still pointed north, although we now knew that we had sailed over the
+ curve or edge of the earth's aperture, and were far along southward on the
+ "inside" surface of the earth's crust, which, according to my father's
+ estimate and my own, is about three hundred miles in thickness from the
+ "inside" to the "outside" surface. Relatively speaking, it is no thicker
+ than an egg-shell, so that there is almost as much surface on the "inside"
+ as on the "outside" of the earth.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The great luminous cloud or ball of dull-red fire&mdash;fiery-red in the
+ mornings and evenings, and during the day giving off a beautiful white
+ light, "The Smoky God,"&mdash;is seemingly suspended in the center of the
+ great vacuum "within" the earth, and held to its place by the immutable
+ law of gravitation, or a repellant atmospheric force, as the case may be.
+ I refer to the known power that draws or repels with equal force in all
+ directions.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The base of this electrical cloud or central luminary, the seat of the
+ gods, is dark and non-transparent, save for innumerable small openings,
+ seemingly in the bottom of the great support or altar of the Deity, upon
+ which "The Smoky God" rests; and, the lights shining through these many
+ openings twinkle at night in all their splendor, and seem to be stars, as
+ natural as the stars we saw shining when in our home at Stockholm,
+ excepting that they appear larger. "The Smoky God," therefore, with each
+ daily revolution of the earth, appears to come up in the east and go down
+ in the west, the same as does our sun on the external surface. In reality,
+ the people "within" believe that "The Smoky God" is the throne of their
+ Jehovah, and is stationary. The effect of night and day is, therefore,
+ produced by the earth's daily rotation.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I have since discovered that the language of the people of the Inner World
+ is much like the Sanskrit.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ After we had given an account of ourselves to the emissaries from the
+ central seat of government of the inner continent, and my father had, in
+ his crude way, drawn maps, at their request, of the "outside" surface of
+ the earth, showing the divisions of land and water, and giving the name of
+ each of the continents, large islands and the oceans, we were taken
+ overland to the city of "Eden," in a conveyance different from anything we
+ have in Europe or America. This vehicle was doubtless some electrical
+ contrivance. It was noiseless, and ran on a single iron rail in perfect
+ balance. The trip was made at a very high rate of speed. We were carried
+ up hills and down dales, across valleys and again along the sides of steep
+ mountains, without any apparent attempt having been made to level the
+ earth as we do for railroad tracks. The car seats were huge yet
+ comfortable affairs, and very high above the floor of the car. On the top
+ of each car were high geared fly wheels lying on their sides, which were
+ so automatically adjusted that, as the speed of the car increased, the
+ high speed of these fly wheels geometrically increased. Jules Galdea
+ explained to us that these revolving fan-like wheels on top of the cars
+ destroyed atmospheric pressure, or what is generally understood by the
+ term gravitation, and with this force thus destroyed or rendered nugatory
+ the car is as safe from falling to one side or the other from the single
+ rail track as if it were in a vacuum; the fly wheels in their rapid
+ revolutions destroying effectually the so-called power of gravitation, or
+ the force of atmospheric pressure or whatever potent influence it may be
+ that causes all unsupported things to fall downward to the earth's surface
+ or to the nearest point of resistance.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The surprise of my father and myself was indescribable when, amid the
+ regal magnificence of a spacious hall, we were finally brought before the
+ Great High Priest, ruler over all the land. He was richly robed, and much
+ taller than those about him, and could not have been less than fourteen or
+ fifteen feet in height. The immense room in which we were received seemed
+ finished in solid slabs of gold thickly studded with jewels, of amazing
+ brilliancy.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The city of "Eden" is located in what seems to be a beautiful valley, yet,
+ in fact, it is on the loftiest mountain plateau of the Inner Continent,
+ several thousand feet higher than any portion of the surrounding country.
+ It is the most beautiful place I have ever beheld in all my travels. In
+ this elevated garden all manner of fruits, vines, shrubs, trees, and
+ flowers grow in riotous profusion.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In this garden four rivers have their source in a mighty artesian
+ fountain. They divide and flow in four directions. This place is called by
+ the inhabitants the "navel of the earth," or the beginning, "the cradle of
+ the human race." The names of the rivers are the Euphrates, the Pison, the
+ Gihon, and the Hiddekel.(17)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (17 "And the Lord God planted a garden, and out of the ground made the
+ Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for
+ food."&mdash;The Book of Genesis.)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The unexpected awaited us in this palace of beauty, in the finding of our
+ little fishing-craft. It had been brought before the High Priest in
+ perfect shape, just as it had been taken from the waters that day when it
+ was loaded on board the ship by the people who discovered us on the river
+ more than a year before.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We were given an audience of over two hours with this great dignitary, who
+ seemed kindly disposed and considerate. He showed himself eagerly
+ interested, asking us numerous questions, and invariably regarding things
+ about which his emissaries had failed to inquire.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ At the conclusion of the interview he inquired our pleasure, asking us
+ whether we wished to remain in his country or if we preferred to return to
+ the "outer" world, providing it were possible to make a successful return
+ trip, across the frozen belt barriers that encircle both the northern and
+ southern openings of the earth.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ My father replied: "It would please me and my son to visit your country
+ and see your people, your colleges and palaces of music and art, your
+ great fields, your wonderful forests of timber; and after we have had this
+ pleasurable privilege, we should like to try to return to our home on the
+ 'outside' surface of the earth. This son is my only child, and my good
+ wife will be weary awaiting our return."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "I fear you can never return," replied the Chief High Priest, "because the
+ way is a most hazardous one. However, you shall visit the different
+ countries with Jules Galdea as your escort, and be accorded every courtesy
+ and kindness. Whenever you are ready to attempt a return voyage, I assure
+ you that your boat which is here on exhibition shall be put in the waters
+ of the river Hiddekel at its mouth, and we will bid you Jehovah-speed."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Thus terminated our only interview with the High Priest or Ruler of the
+ continent.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <a name="link2H_PART4" id="link2H_PART4">
+ <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
+ </p>
+ <div style="height: 4em;">
+ <br /><br /><br /><br />
+ </div>
+ <h2>
+ PART FOUR. IN THE UNDER WORLD
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ WE learned that the males do not marry before they are from seventy-five
+ to one hundred years old, and that the age at which women enter wedlock is
+ only a little less, and that both men and women frequently live to be from
+ six to eight hundred years old, and in some instances much older.(18)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (18 Josephus says: "God prolonged the life of the patriarchs that preceded
+ the deluge, both on account of their virtues and to give them the
+ opportunity of perfecting the sciences of geometry and astronomy, which
+ they had discovered; which they could not have done if they had not lived
+ 600 years, because it is only after the lapse of 600 years that the great
+ year is accomplished."&mdash;Flammarion, Astronomical Myths, Paris p. 26.)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ During the following year we visited many villages and towns, prominent
+ among them being the cities of Nigi, Delfi, Hectea, and my father was
+ called upon no less than a half-dozen times to go over the maps which had
+ been made from the rough sketches he had originally given of the divisions
+ of land and water on the "outside" surface of the earth.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I remember hearing my father remark that the giant race of people in the
+ land of "The Smoky God" had almost as accurate an idea of the geography of
+ the "outside" surface of the earth as had the average college professor in
+ Stockholm.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In our travels we came to a forest of gigantic trees, near the city of
+ Delfi. Had the Bible said there were trees towering over three hundred
+ feet in height, and more than thirty feet in diameter, growing in the
+ Garden of Eden, the Ingersolls, the Tom Paines and Voltaires would
+ doubtless have pronounced the statement a myth. Yet this is the
+ description of the California sequoia gigantea; but these California
+ giants pale into insignificance when compared with the forest Goliaths
+ found in the "within" continent, where abound mighty trees from eight
+ hundred to one thousand feet in height, and from one hundred to one
+ hundred and twenty feet in diameter; countless in numbers and forming
+ forests extending hundreds of miles back from the sea.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The people are exceedingly musical, and learned to a remarkable degree in
+ their arts and sciences, especially geometry and astronomy. Their cities
+ are equipped with vast palaces of music, where not infrequently as many as
+ twenty-five thousand lusty voices of this giant race swell forth in mighty
+ choruses of the most sublime symphonies.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The children are not supposed to attend institutions of learning before
+ they are twenty years old. Then their school life begins and continues for
+ thirty years, ten of which are uniformly devoted by both sexes to the
+ study of music.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Their principal vocations are architecture, agriculture, horticulture, the
+ raising of vast herds of cattle, and the building of conveyances peculiar
+ to that country, for travel on land and water. By some device which I
+ cannot explain, they hold communion with one another between the most
+ distant parts of their country, on air currents.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ All buildings are erected with special regard to strength, durability,
+ beauty and symmetry, and with a style of architecture vastly more
+ attractive to the eye than any I have ever observed elsewhere.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ About three-fourths of the "inner" surface of the earth is land and about
+ one-fourth water. There are numerous rivers of tremendous size, some
+ flowing in a northerly direction and others southerly. Some of these
+ rivers are thirty miles in width, and it is out of these vast waterways,
+ at the extreme northern and southern parts of the "inside" surface of the
+ earth, in regions where low temperatures are experienced, that fresh-water
+ icebergs are formed. They are then pushed out to sea like huge tongues of
+ ice, by the abnormal freshets of turbulent waters that, twice every year,
+ sweep everything before them.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We saw innumerable specimens of bird-life no larger than those encountered
+ in the forests of Europe or America. It is well known that during the last
+ few years whole species of birds have quit the earth. A writer in a recent
+ article on this subject says:(19)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (19 "Almost every year sees the final extinction of one or more bird
+ species. Out of fourteen varieties of birds found a century since on a
+ single island&mdash;the West Indian island of St. Thomas&mdash;eight have
+ now to be numbered among the missing.")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Is it not possible that these disappearing bird species quit their
+ habitation without, and find an asylum in the "within world"?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Whether inland among the mountains, or along the seashore, we found bird
+ life prolific. When they spread their great wings some of the birds
+ appeared to measure thirty feet from tip to tip. They are of great variety
+ and many colors. We were permitted to climb up on the edge of a rock and
+ examine a nest of eggs. There were five in the nest, each of which was at
+ least two feet in length and fifteen inches in diameter.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ After we had been in the city of Hectea about a week, Professor Galdea
+ took us to an inlet, where we saw thousands of tortoises along the sandy
+ shore. I hesitate to state the size of these great creatures. They were
+ from twenty-five to thirty feet in length, from fifteen to twenty feet in
+ width and fully seven feet in height. When one of them projected its head
+ it had the appearance of some hideous sea monster.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The strange conditions "within" are favorable not only for vast meadows of
+ luxuriant grasses, forests of giant trees, and all manner of vegetable
+ life, but wonderful animal life as well.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ One day we saw a great herd of elephants. There must have been five
+ hundred of these thunder-throated monsters, with their restlessly waving
+ trunks. They were tearing huge boughs from the trees and trampling smaller
+ growth into dust like so much hazel-brush. They would average over 100
+ feet in length and from 75 to 85 in height.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It seemed, as I gazed upon this wonderful herd of giant elephants, that I
+ was again living in the public library at Stockholm, where I had spent
+ much time studying the wonders of the Miocene age. I was filled with mute
+ astonishment, and my father was speechless with awe. He held my arm with a
+ protecting grip, as if fearful harm would overtake us. We were two atoms
+ in this great forest, and, fortunately, unobserved by this vast herd of
+ elephants as they drifted on and away, following a leader as does a herd
+ of sheep. They browsed from growing herbage which they encountered as they
+ traveled, and now and again shook the firmament with their deep
+ bellowing.(20)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (20 "Moreover, there were a great number of elephants in the island: and
+ there was provision for animals of every kind. Also whatever fragrant
+ things there are in the earth, whether roots or herbage, or woods, or
+ distilling drops of flowers or fruits, grew and thrived in that land."&mdash;The
+ Cratylus of Plato.)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ There is a hazy mist that goes up from the land each evening, and it
+ invariably rains once every twenty-four hours. This great moisture and the
+ invigorating electrical light and warmth account perhaps for the luxuriant
+ vegetation, while the highly charged electrical air and the evenness of
+ climatic conditions may have much to do with the giant growth and
+ longevity of all animal life.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In places the level valleys stretched away for many miles in every
+ direction. "The Smoky God," in its clear white light, looked calmly down.
+ There was an intoxication in the electrically surcharged air that fanned
+ the cheek as softly as a vanishing whisper. Nature chanted a lullaby in
+ the faint murmur of winds whose breath was sweet with the fragrance of bud
+ and blossom.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ After having spent considerably more than a year in visiting several of
+ the many cities of the "within" world and a great deal of intervening
+ country, and more than two years had passed from the time we had been
+ picked up by the great excursion ship on the river, we decided to cast our
+ fortunes once more upon the sea, and endeavor to regain the "outside"
+ surface of the earth.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We made known our wishes, and they were reluctantly but promptly followed.
+ Our hosts gave my father, at his request, various maps showing the entire
+ "inside" surface of the earth, its cities, oceans, seas, rivers, gulfs and
+ bays. They also generously offered to give us all the bags of gold nuggets&mdash;some
+ of them as large as a goose's egg&mdash;that we were willing to attempt to
+ take with us in our little fishing-boat.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In due time we returned to Jehu, at which place we spent one month in
+ fixing up and overhauling our little fishing sloop. After all was in
+ readiness, the same ship "Naz" that originally discovered us, took us on
+ board and sailed to the mouth of the river Hiddekel.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ After our giant brothers had launched our little craft for us, they were
+ most cordially regretful at parting, and evinced much solicitude for our
+ safety. My father swore by the Gods Odin and Thor that he would surely
+ return again within a year or two and pay them another visit. And thus we
+ bade them adieu. We made ready and hoisted our sail, but there was little
+ breeze. We were becalmed within an hour after our giant friends had left
+ us and started on their return trip.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The winds were constantly blowing south, that is, they were blowing from
+ the northern opening of the earth toward that which we knew to be south,
+ but which, according to our compass's pointing finger, was directly north.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ For three days we tried to sail, and to beat against the wind, but to no
+ avail. Whereupon my father said: "My son, to return by the same route as
+ we came in is impossible at this time of year. I wonder why we did not
+ think of this before. We have been here almost two and a half years;
+ therefore, this is the season when the sun is beginning to shine in at the
+ southern opening of the earth. The long cold night is on in the
+ Spitzbergen country."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "What shall we do?" I inquired.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "There is only one thing we can do," my father replied, "and that is to go
+ south." Accordingly, he turned the craft about, gave it full reef, and
+ started by the compass north but, in fact, directly south. The wind was
+ strong, and we seemed to have struck a current that was running with
+ remarkable swiftness in the same direction.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In just forty days we arrived at Delfi, a city we had visited in company
+ with our guides Jules Galdea and his wife, near the mouth of the Gihon
+ river. Here we stopped for two days, and were most hospitably entertained
+ by the same people who had welcomed us on our former visit. We laid in
+ some additional provisions and again set sail, following the needle due
+ north.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ On our outward trip we came through a narrow channel which appeared to be
+ a separating body of water between two considerable bodies of land. There
+ was a beautiful beach to our right, and we decided to reconnoiter. Casting
+ anchor, we waded ashore to rest up for a day before continuing the outward
+ hazardous undertaking. We built a fire and threw on some sticks of dry
+ driftwood. While my father was walking along the shore, I prepared a
+ tempting repast from supplies we had provided.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ There was a mild, luminous light which my father said resulted from the
+ sun shining in from the south aperture of the earth. That night we slept
+ soundly, and awakened the next morning as refreshed as if we had been in
+ our own beds at Stockholm.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ After breakfast we started out on an inland tour of discovery, but had not
+ gone far when we sighted some birds which we recognized at once as
+ belonging to the penguin family.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ They are flightless birds, but excellent swimmers and tremendous in size,
+ with white breast, short wings, black head, and long peaked bills. They
+ stand fully nine feet high. They looked at us with little surprise, and
+ presently waddled, rather than walked, toward the water, and swam away in
+ a northerly direction.(21)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (21 "The nights are never so dark at the Poles as in other regions, for
+ the moon and stars seem to possess twice as much light and effulgence. In
+ addition, there is a continuous light, the varied shades and play of which
+ are amongst the strangest phenomena of nature."&mdash;Rambrosson's
+ Astronomy.)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The events that occurred during the following hundred or more days beggar
+ description. We were on an open and iceless sea. The month we reckoned to
+ be November or December, and we knew the so-called South Pole was turned
+ toward the sun. Therefore, when passing out and away from the internal
+ electrical light of "The Smoky God" and its genial warmth, we would be met
+ by the light and warmth of the sun, shining in through the south opening
+ of the earth. We were not mistaken.(22)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (22 "The fact that gives the phenomenon of the polar aurora its greatest
+ importance is that the earth becomes self-luminous; that, besides the
+ light which as a planet is received from the central body, it shows a
+ capability of sustaining a luminous process proper to itself."&mdash;Humboldt.)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ There were times when our little craft, driven by wind that was continuous
+ and persistent, shot through the waters like an arrow. Indeed, had we
+ encountered a hidden rock or obstacle, our little vessel would have been
+ crushed into kindling-wood.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ At last we were conscious that the atmosphere was growing decidedly
+ colder, and, a few days later, icebergs were sighted far to the left. My
+ father argued, and correctly, that the winds which filled our sails came
+ from the warm climate "within." The time of the year was certainly most
+ auspicious for us to make our dash for the "outside" world and attempt to
+ scud our fishing sloop through open channels of the frozen zone which
+ surrounds the polar regions.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We were soon amid the ice-packs, and how our little craft got through. the
+ narrow channels and escaped being crushed I know not. The compass behaved
+ in the same drunken and unreliable fashion in passing over the southern
+ curve or edge of the earth's shell as it had done on our inbound trip at
+ the northern entrance. It gyrated, dipped and seemed like a thing
+ possessed.(23)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (23 Captain Sabine, on page 105 in "Voyages in the Arctic Regions," says:
+ "The geographical determination of the direction and intensity of the
+ magnetic forces at different points of the earth's surface has been
+ regarded as an object worthy of especial research. To examine in different
+ parts of the globe, the declination, inclination and intensity of the
+ magnetic force, and their periodical and secular variations, and mutual
+ relations and dependencies could be duly investigated only in fixed
+ magnetical observatories.")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ One day as I was lazily looking over the sloop's side into the clear
+ waters, my father shouted: "Breakers ahead!" Looking up, I saw through a
+ lifting mist a white object that towered several hundred feet high,
+ completely shutting off our advance. We lowered sail immediately, and none
+ too soon. In a moment we found ourselves wedged between two monstrous
+ icebergs. Each was crowding and grinding against its fellow mountain of
+ ice. They were like two gods of war contending for supremacy. We were
+ greatly alarmed. Indeed, we were between the lines of a battle royal; the
+ sonorous thunder of the grinding ice was like the continued volleys of
+ artillery. Blocks of ice larger than a house were frequently lifted up a
+ hundred feet by the mighty force of lateral pressure; they would shudder
+ and rock to and fro for a few seconds, then come crashing down with a
+ deafening roar, and disappear in the foaming waters. Thus, for more than
+ two hours, the contest of the icy giants continued.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It seemed as if the end had come. The ice pressure was terrific, and while
+ we were not caught in the dangerous part of the jam, and were safe for the
+ time being, yet the heaving and rending of tons of ice as it fell
+ splashing here and there into the watery depths filled us with shaking
+ fear.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Finally, to our great joy, the grinding of the ice ceased, and within a
+ few hours the great mass slowly divided, and, as if an act of Providence
+ had been performed, right before us lay an open channel. Should we venture
+ with our little craft into this opening? If the pressure came on again,
+ our little sloop as well as ourselves would be crushed into nothingness.
+ We decided to take the chance, and, accordingly, hoisted our sail to a
+ favoring breeze, and soon started out like a race-horse, running the
+ gauntlet of this unknown narrow channel of open water.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <a name="link2H_PART5" id="link2H_PART5">
+ <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
+ </p>
+ <div style="height: 4em;">
+ <br /><br /><br /><br />
+ </div>
+ <h2>
+ PART FIVE. AMONG THE ICE PACKS
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ FOR the next forty-five days our time was employed in dodging icebergs and
+ hunting channels; indeed, had we not been favored with a strong south wind
+ and a small boat, I doubt if this story could have ever been given to the
+ world.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ At last, there came a morning when my father said: "My son, I think we are
+ to see home. We are almost through the ice. See! the open water lies
+ before us."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ However, there were a few icebergs that had floated far northward into the
+ open water still ahead of us on either side, stretching away for many
+ miles. Directly in front of us, and by the compass, which had now righted
+ itself, due north, there was an open sea.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "What a wonderful story we have to tell to the people of Stockholm,"
+ continued my father, while a look of pardonable elation lighted up his
+ honest face. "And think of the gold nuggets stowed away in the hold!"
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I spoke kind words of praise to my father, not alone for his fortitude and
+ endurance, but also for his courageous daring as a discoverer, and for
+ having made the voyage that now promised a successful end. I was grateful,
+ too, that he had gathered the wealth of gold we were carrying home.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ While congratulating ourselves on the goodly supply of provisions and
+ water we still had on hand, and on the dangers we had escaped, we were
+ startled by hearing a most terrific explosion, caused by the tearing apart
+ of a huge mountain of ice. It was a deafening roar like the firing of a
+ thousand cannon. We were sailing at the time with great speed, and
+ happened to be near a monstrous iceberg which to all appearances was as
+ immovable as a rockbound island. It seemed, however, that the iceberg had
+ split and was breaking apart, whereupon the balance of the monster along
+ which we were sailing was destroyed, and it began dipping from us. My
+ father quickly anticipated the danger before I realized its awful
+ possibilities. The iceberg extended down into the water many hundreds of
+ feet, and, as it tipped over, the portion coming up out of the water
+ caught our fishing-craft like a lever on a fulcrum, and threw it into the
+ air as if it had been a foot-ball.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Our boat fell back on the iceberg, that by this time had changed the side
+ next to us for the top. My father was still in the boat, having become
+ entangled in the rigging, while I was thrown some twenty feet away.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I quickly scrambled to my feet and shouted to my father, who answered:
+ "All is well." Just then a realization dawned upon me. Horror upon horror!
+ The blood froze in my veins. The iceberg was still in motion, and its
+ great weight and force in toppling over would cause it to submerge
+ temporarily. I fully realized what a sucking maelstrom it would produce
+ amid the worlds of water on every side. They would rush into the
+ depression in all their fury, like white-fanged wolves eager for human
+ prey.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In this supreme moment of mental anguish, I remember glancing at our boat,
+ which was lying on its side, and wondering if it could possibly right
+ itself, and if my father could escape. Was this the end of our struggles
+ and adventures? Was this death? All these questions flashed through my
+ mind in the fraction of a second, and a moment later I was engaged in a
+ life and death struggle. The ponderous monolith of ice sank below the
+ surface, and the frigid waters gurgled around me in frenzied anger. I was
+ in a saucer, with the waters pouring in on every side. A moment more and I
+ lost consciousness.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When I partially recovered my senses, and roused from the swoon of a
+ half-drowned man, I found myself wet, stiff, and almost frozen, lying on
+ the iceberg. But there was no sign of my father or of our little fishing
+ sloop. The monster berg had recovered itself, and, with its new balance,
+ lifted its head perhaps fifty feet above the waves. The top of this island
+ of ice was a plateau perhaps half an acre in extent.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I loved my father well, and was grief-stricken at the awfulness of his
+ death. I railed at fate, that I, too, had not been permitted to sleep with
+ him in the depths of the ocean. Finally, I climbed to my feet and looked
+ about me. The purple-domed sky above, the shoreless green ocean beneath,
+ and only an occasional iceberg discernible! My heart sank in hopeless
+ despair. I cautiously picked my way across the berg toward the other side,
+ hoping that our fishing craft had righted itself.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Dared I think it possible that my father still lived? It was but a ray of
+ hope that flamed up in my heart. But the anticipation warmed my blood in
+ my veins and started it rushing like some rare stimulant through every
+ fiber of my body.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I crept close to the precipitous side of the iceberg, and peered far down,
+ hoping, still hoping. Then I made a circle of the berg, scanning every
+ foot of the way, and thus I kept going around and around. One part of my
+ brain was certainly becoming maniacal, while the other part, I believe,
+ and do to this day, was perfectly rational.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I was conscious of having made the circuit a dozen times, and while one
+ part of my intelligence knew, in all reason, there was not a vestige of
+ hope, yet some strange fascinating aberration bewitched and compelled me
+ still to beguile myself with expectation. The other part of my brain
+ seemed to tell me that while there was no possibility of my father being
+ alive, yet, if I quit making the circuitous pilgrimage, if I paused for a
+ single moment, it would be acknowledgment of defeat, and, should I do
+ this, I felt that I should go mad. Thus, hour after hour I walked around
+ and around, afraid to stop and rest, yet physically powerless to continue
+ much longer. Oh! horror of horrors! to be cast away in this wide expanse
+ of waters without food or drink, and only a treacherous iceberg for an
+ abiding place. My heart sank within me, and all semblance of hope was
+ fading into black despair.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Then the hand of the Deliverer was extended, and the death-like stillness
+ of a solitude rapidly becoming unbearable was suddenly broken by the
+ firing of a signal-gun. I looked up in startled amazement, when, I saw,
+ less than a half-mile away, a whaling-vessel bearing down toward me with
+ her sail full set.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Evidently my continued activity on the iceberg had attracted their
+ attention. On drawing near, they put out a boat, and, descending
+ cautiously to the water's edge, I was rescued, and a little later lifted
+ on board the whaling-ship.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I found it was a Scotch whaler, "The Arlington." She had cleared from
+ Dundee in September, and started immediately for the Antarctic, in search
+ of whales. The captain, Angus MacPherson, seemed kindly disposed, but in
+ matters of discipline, as I soon learned, possessed of an iron will. When
+ I attempted to tell him that I had come from the "inside" of the earth,
+ the captain and mate looked at each other, shook their heads, and insisted
+ on my being put in a bunk under strict surveillance of the ship's
+ physician.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I was very weak for want of food, and had not slept for many hours.
+ However, after a few days' rest, I got up one morning and dressed myself
+ without asking permission of the physician or anyone else, and told them
+ that I was as sane as anyone.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The captain sent for me and again questioned me concerning where I had
+ come from, and how I came to be alone on an iceberg in the far off
+ Antarctic Ocean. I replied that I had just come from the "inside" of the
+ earth, and proceeded to tell him how my father and myself had gone in by
+ way of Spitzbergen, and come out by way of the South Pole country,
+ whereupon I was put in irons. I afterward heard the captain tell the mate
+ that I was as crazy as a March hare, and that I must remain in confinement
+ until I was rational enough to give a truthful account of myself.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Finally, after much pleading and many promises, I was released from irons.
+ I then and there decided to invent some story that would satisfy the
+ captain, and never again refer to my trip to the land of "The Smoky God,"
+ at least until I was safe among friends.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Within a fortnight I was permitted to go about and take my place as one of
+ the seamen. A little later the captain asked me for an explanation. I told
+ him that my experience had been so horrible that I was fearful of my
+ memory, and begged him to permit me to leave the question unanswered until
+ some time in the future. "I think you are recovering considerably," he
+ said, "but you are not sane yet by a good deal." "Permit me to do such
+ work as you may assign," I replied, "and if it does not compensate you
+ sufficiently, I will pay you immediately after I reach Stockholm&mdash;to
+ the last penny." Thus the matter rested.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ On finally reaching Stockholm, as I have already related, I found that my
+ good mother had gone to her reward more than a year before. I have also
+ told how, later, the treachery of a relative landed me in a madhouse,
+ where I remained for twenty-eight years&mdash;seemingly unending years&mdash;and,
+ still later, after my release, how I returned to the life of a fisherman,
+ following it sedulously for twenty-seven years, then how I came to
+ America, and finally to Los Angeles, California. But all this can be of
+ little interest to the reader. Indeed, it seems to me the climax of my
+ wonderful travels and strange adventures was reached when the Scotch
+ sailing-vessel took me from an iceberg on the Antarctic Ocean.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <a name="link2H_PART6" id="link2H_PART6">
+ <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
+ </p>
+ <div style="height: 4em;">
+ <br /><br /><br /><br />
+ </div>
+ <h2>
+ PART SIX. CONCLUSION
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ IN concluding this history of my adventures, I wish to state that I firmly
+ believe science is yet in its infancy concerning the cosmology of the
+ earth. There is so much that is unaccounted for by the world's accepted
+ knowledge of to-day, and will ever remain so until the land of "The Smoky
+ God" is known and recognized by our geographers.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It is the land from whence came the great logs of cedar that have been
+ found by explorers in open waters far over the northern edge of the
+ earth's crust, and also the bodies of mammoths whose bones are found in
+ vast beds on the Siberian coast.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Northern explorers have done much. Sir John Franklin, De Haven Grinnell,
+ Sir John Murray, Kane, Melville, Hall, Nansen, Schwatka, Greely, Peary,
+ Ross, Gerlache, Bernacchi, Andree, Amsden, Amundson and others have all
+ been striving to storm the frozen citadel of mystery.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I firmly believe that Andree and his two brave companions, Strindberg and
+ Fraenckell, who sailed away in the balloon "Oreon" from the northwest
+ coast of Spitzbergen on that Sunday afternoon of July 11, 1897, are now in
+ the "within" world, and doubtless are being entertained, as my father and
+ myself were entertained by the kind-hearted giant race inhabiting the
+ inner Atlantic Continent.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Having, in my humble way, devoted years to these problems, I am well
+ acquainted with the accepted definitions of gravity, as well as the cause
+ of the magnetic needle's attraction, and I am prepared to say that it is
+ my firm belief that the magnetic needle is influenced solely by electric
+ currents which completely envelop the earth like a garment, and that these
+ electric currents in an endless circuit pass out of the southern end of
+ the earth's cylindrical opening, diffusing and spreading themselves over
+ all the "outside" surface, and rushing madly on in their course toward the
+ North Pole. And while these currents seemingly dash off into space at the
+ earth's curve or edge, yet they drop again to the "inside" surface and
+ continue their way southward along the inside of the earth's crust, toward
+ the opening of the so-called South Pole.(24)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (24 "Mr. Lemstrom concluded that an electric discharge which could only be
+ seen by means of the spectroscope was taking place on the surface of the
+ ground all around him, and that from a distance it would appear as a faint
+ display of Aurora, the phenomena of pale and flaming light which is some
+ times seen on the top of the Spitzbergen Mountains."&mdash;The Arctic
+ Manual, page 739.)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ As to gravity, no one knows what it is, because it has not been determined
+ whether it is atmospheric pressure that causes the apple to fall, or
+ whether, 150 miles below the surface of the earth, supposedly one-half way
+ through the earth's crust, there exists some powerful loadstone attraction
+ that draws it. Therefore, whether the apple, when it leaves the limb of
+ the tree, is drawn or impelled downward to the nearest point of
+ resistance, is unknown to the students of physics.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Sir James Ross claimed to have discovered the magnetic pole at about
+ seventy-four degrees latitude. This is wrong&mdash;the magnetic pole is
+ exactly one-half the distance through the earth's crust. Thus, if the
+ earth's crust is three hundred miles in thickness, which is the distance I
+ estimate it to be, then the magnetic pole is undoubtedly one hundred and
+ fifty miles below the surface of the earth, it matters not where the test
+ is made. And at this particular point one hundred and fifty miles below
+ the surface, gravity ceases, becomes neutralized; and when we pass beyond
+ that point on toward the "inside" surface of the earth, a reverse
+ attraction geometrically increases in power, until the other one hundred
+ and fifty miles of distance is traversed, which would bring us out on the
+ "inside" of the earth.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Thus, if a hole were bored down through the earth's crust at London,
+ Paris, New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, a distance of three hundred
+ miles, it would connect the two surfaces. While the inertia and momentum
+ of a weight dropped in from the "outside" surface would carry it far past
+ the magnetic center, yet, before reaching the "inside" surface of the
+ earth it would gradually diminish in speed, after passing the halfway
+ point, finally pause and immediately fall back toward the "outside"
+ surface, and continue thus to oscillate, like the swinging of a pendulum
+ with the power removed, until it would finally rest at the magnetic
+ center, or at that particular point exactly one-half the distance between
+ the "outside" surface and the "inside" surface of the earth.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The gyration of the earth in its daily act of whirling around in its
+ spiral rotation&mdash;at a rate greater than one thousand miles every
+ hour, or about seventeen miles per second&mdash;makes of it a vast
+ electro-generating body, a huge machine, a mighty prototype of the
+ puny-man-made dynamo, which, at best, is but a feeble imitation of
+ nature's original.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The valleys of this inner Atlantis Continent, bordering the upper waters
+ of the farthest north are in season covered with the most magnificent and
+ luxuriant flowers. Not hundreds and thousands, but millions, of acres,
+ from which the pollen or blossoms are carried far away in almost every
+ direction by the earth's spiral gyrations and the agitation of the wind
+ resulting therefrom, and it is these blossoms or pollen from the vast
+ floral meadows "within" that produce the colored snows of the Arctic
+ regions that have so mystified the northern explorers.(25)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ (25 Kane, vol. I, page 44, says: "We passed the 'crimson cliffs' of Sir
+ John Ross in the forenoon of August 5th. The patches of red snow from
+ which they derive their name could be seen clearly at the distance of ten
+ miles from the coast."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ La Chambre, in an account of Andree's balloon expedition, on page 144,
+ says: "On the isle of Amsterdam the snow is tinted with red for a
+ considerable distance, and the savants are collecting it to examine it
+ microscopically. It presents, in fact, certain peculiarities; it is
+ thought that it contains very small plants. Scoresby, the famous whaler,
+ had already remarked this.")
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Beyond question, this new land "within" is the home, the cradle, of the
+ human race, and viewed from the standpoint of the discoveries made by us,
+ must of necessity have a most important bearing on all physical,
+ paleontological, archaeological, philological and mythological theories of
+ antiquity.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The same idea of going back to the land of mystery&mdash;to the very
+ beginning&mdash;to the origin of man&mdash;is found in Egyptian traditions
+ of the earlier terrestrial regions of the gods, heroes and men, from the
+ historical fragments of Manetho, fully verified by the historical records
+ taken from the more recent excavations of Pompeii as well as the
+ traditions of the North American Indians.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It is now one hour past midnight&mdash;the new year of 1908 is here, and
+ this is the third day thereof, and having at last finished the record of
+ my strange travels and adventures I wish given to the world, I am ready,
+ and even longing, for the peaceful rest which I am sure will follow life's
+ trials and vicissitudes. I am old in years, and ripe both with adventures
+ and sorrows, yet rich with the few friends I have cemented to me in my
+ struggles to lead a just and upright life. Like a story that is well-nigh
+ told, my life is ebbing away. The presentiment is strong within me that I
+ shall not live to see the rising of another sun. Thus do I conclude my
+ message. OLAF JANSEN.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <a name="link2H_PART7" id="link2H_PART7">
+ <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
+ </p>
+ <div style="height: 4em;">
+ <br /><br /><br /><br />
+ </div>
+ <h2>
+ PART SEVEN. AUTHOR'S AFTERWORD
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ I FOUND much difficulty in deciphering and editing the manuscripts of Olaf
+ Jansen. However, I have taken the liberty of reconstructing only a very
+ few expressions, and in doing this have in no way changed the spirit or
+ meaning. Otherwise, the original text has neither been added to nor taken
+ from.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It is impossible for me to express my opinion as to the value or
+ reliability of the wonderful statements made by Olaf Jansen. The
+ description here given of the strange lands and people visited by him,
+ location of cities, the names and directions of rivers, and other
+ information herein combined, conform in every way to the rough drawings
+ given into my custody by this ancient Norseman, which drawings together
+ with the manuscript it is my intention at some later date to give to the
+ Smithsonian Institution, to preserve for the benefit of those interested
+ in the mysteries of the "Farthest North"&mdash;the frozen circle of
+ silence. It is certain there are many things in Vedic literature, in
+ "Josephus," the "Odyssey," the "Iliad," Terrien de Lacouperie's "Early
+ History of Chinese Civilization," Flammarion's "Astronomical Myths,"
+ Lenormant's "Beginnings of History," Hesiod's "Theogony," Sir John de
+ Maundeville's writings, and Sayce's "Records of the Past," that, to say
+ the least, are strangely in harmony with the seemingly incredible text
+ found in the yellow manuscript of the old Norseman, Olaf Jansen, and now
+ for the first time given to the world.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ THE END <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
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