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diff --git a/3007.txt b/3007.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ecc30a --- /dev/null +++ b/3007.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2383 @@ +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: January, 2002 [Etext #3007] +Posting Date: October 29, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SMOKY GOD *** + + + + +Produced by Judy Boss + + + + + +THE SMOKY GOD + +OR + +A Voyage to the Inner World + + +By Willis George Emerson + +Author Of "Buell Hampton," "The Builders," Etc. + + +Copyright, 1908, + + + + Dedicated + TO + MY CHUM AND COMPANION + BONNIE EMERSON + MY WIFE + + + +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. + + +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, + + + +CONTENTS + + PART I. AUTHOR'S FOREWORD + PART II. OLAF JANSEN'S STORY + PART III. BEYOND THE NORTH WIND + PART IV. IN THE UNDER WORLD + PART V. AMONG THE ICE PACKS + PART VI. CONCLUSION + PART VII. AUTHOR'S AFTERWORD + + + + + +THE SMOKY GOD + +OR + +A VOYAGE TO THE INNER WORLD + + "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."--PLATO. + + + + +PART ONE. AUTHOR'S FOREWORD + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +Then came the messenger's call that night, and within the hour I was at +Olaf Jansen's bungalow. + +He was very impatient at the long wait, although after being summoned I +had come immediately to his bedside. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +But, first of all, let me indulge in one or two reflections: + +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. + +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." + +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. + +Dr. Orville Livingston Leech, scientist, in a recent article, says: + +"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." + +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: + +"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. + +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. + +Olaf Jansen makes the startling announcement through me, an humble +instrument, that in like manner, God created the earth for the +"within"--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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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--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. + +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." + +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--a mammoth ball of dull red fire--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." + +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. + +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. + +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--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." + +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. + +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. + +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) + +(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."--M. le Marquis G. de Saporta, in Popular Science Monthly, +October, 1883, page 753.) + +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. + +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." + +They who were driven out of the "Garden of Eden" brought their +traditional history with them. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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: + + + + + +PART TWO. OLAF JANSEN'S STORY + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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,--but not until I have finished my earthly +pilgrimage. + +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. + +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. + +All might have been well, had I erased from my memory the story of our +adventure and of my father's terrible death. + +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. + +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--long, tedious, +frightful years of suffering! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The memory of my long confinement with maniacs, and all the horrible +anguish and sufferings are too vivid to warrant my taking further +chances. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + +(2 It will be remembered that Andree started on his fatal balloon voyage +from the northwest coast of Spitzbergen.) + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + +(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--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.") + +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) + +(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.") + +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." + +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) + +(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.") + +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." + +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--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) + +(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.") + +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. + +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--channels so narrow +in places that, had our craft been other than small, we never could have +gotten through. + +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) + +(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.") + +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) + +(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.") + +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. + +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) + +(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?") + +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." + +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. + +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) + +(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--not more than a day +old, so thin that it was easily broken by throwing pieces of ice upon +it.") + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + + + + +PART THREE. BEYOND THE NORTH WIND + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + +(11 In vol. I, page 196, Nansen writes: "It is a peculiar +phenomenon,--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.") + +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. + +In response to my surprise, my father said, "I have heard of this +before; it is what they call the dipping of the needle." + +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. + +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) + +(12 In volume II, pages 18 and 19, Nansen writes about the inclination +of the needle. Speaking of Johnson, his aide: "One day--it was November +24--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.'" + +We again find in Peary's first voyage--page 67,--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.") + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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--a reality.(13) + +(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.") + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + +(14 Peary's first voyage, pages 69 and 70, says: + + "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.") + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +It was a larger ship than any we had ever seen, and was differently +constructed.(15) + +(15 Asiatic Mythology,--page 240, "Paradise found"--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,--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."--Warren.) + +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. + +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. + +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." + +"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." + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + +(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."--Wm. F. Warren, "Paradise Found," p. 284.) + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The great luminous cloud or ball of dull-red fire--fiery-red in the +mornings and evenings, and during the day giving off a beautiful white +light, "The Smoky God,"--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. + +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. + +I have since discovered that the language of the people of the Inner +World is much like the Sanskrit. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + +(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."--The Book of Genesis.) + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +"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." + +Thus terminated our only interview with the High Priest or Ruler of the +continent. + + + +PART FOUR + +IN THE UNDER WORLD + +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) + +(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."--Flammarion, Astronomical Myths, +Paris p. 26.) + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + +(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--the West Indian island of St. Thomas--eight have now to +be numbered among the missing.") + +Is it not possible that these disappearing bird species quit their +habitation without, and find an asylum in the "within world"? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + +(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."--The Cratylus of Plato.) + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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--some of them as large as a goose's egg--that we +were willing to attempt to take with us in our little fishing-boat. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +"What shall we do?" I inquired. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + +(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."--Rambrosson's +Astronomy.) + +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) + +(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."--Humboldt.) + +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. + +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. + +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) + +(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.") + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +PART FIVE. AMONG THE ICE PACKS + +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. + +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." + +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. + +"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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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--to the last penny." Thus the matter rested. + +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--seemingly unending +years--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. + + + + +PART SIX. CONCLUSION + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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) + +(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."--The Arctic +Manual, page 739.) + +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. + +Sir James Ross claimed to have discovered the magnetic pole at about +seventy-four degrees latitude. This is wrong--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. + +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. + +The gyration of the earth in its daily act of whirling around in its +spiral rotation--at a rate greater than one thousand miles every +hour, or about seventeen miles per second--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. + +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) + +(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." + +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.") + +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. + +The same idea of going back to the land of mystery--to the very +beginning--to the origin of man--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. + +It is now one hour past midnight--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. + + + + +PART SEVEN. AUTHOR'S AFTERWORD + +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. + +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"--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. + + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Smoky God, by Willis George Emerson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SMOKY GOD *** + +***** This file should be named 3007.txt or 3007.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/0/3007/ + +Produced by Judy Boss + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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