Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 273, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1913 — The Polar Mystery. [ARTICLE]

The Polar Mystery.

At a meeting of members of the Arctic Club in New York recently discussion took a form which seems to Imply doubt of the entire system upod which exploration of the polar region has been conducted from time immemorial. The doubt is of the very existence of a north .pole; and if the supreme goal of adventurers is non-existent, what Is the use of looking for it? , But if there is no northpole, whalt Is there up there? The answer to which the Arctic club' listened to with more or less credulity is that the end of the earth is a great hole. And there is a good deal inside thkr hole. “The earth is not only hollow. or double,” says Mr. William Reed, “but suitable in its interior to sustain man with as little discomfort as on its exterior, and can be made accessible to mankind with one-fourth the outlay of treasure, time and life, that It cost to build the subway in New York city. The number of people that will find comfortable homes there will be billions. In the interior are vast continents oceans,moult tains and rivers, vegetation and animal life, and it is probably peopled by races yet unknown to dwellers on the earth’s exterior.” Where, for instance, did Andree go with his balloon when he drifted into the great frozen solitude?- No fragment of the airship has ever been found. Why, he simply floated over the edge and went down inside, where to-day, he may be residing in comfort. And what is the matter with the magnetic pole, which explorers always find somewhere in a region about 600 miles from the geographic pole? There is nothing the matter with it; all that happens is that the needle naturally refuses to dip any farther when brought to the edge of the great hole, and simply marks the farthest point north. Proceed you go Inside. Was not this, in fact Nansen was doing In that strange fortnight of -which he writes, when his compass would not work and he could see no stars from which to take observations and could pot tell where he was until he later drifted out of the great hole?