Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-08-16
" sYMMEs' HOLE" AND ARCTIC RO-
NANCE.

| mMEc EVLE, AMI hRCI1C RU-
NANCE.
The son of John Cleve Symmes, who
originated, and with such persistency long
iexpounded the fantastic doctrine of de-
preston at the North Pole leading into
the earth, the interior of which he held to
be hollow, is still preaching his fathers
theory. He recently lectured in Louisville
to a meager audience on this subject. He
came upon the stage trembling old man,
keeping a vow made to his father on his
death-bed, to maintain his theory. The
immediate occasion of the lecture was the
return of the Greedy party. Symmes claims
that Greely's discoveries bear out his
theory, which he valiently defends from
the charge of being a visionary idea.
John Cleve Symmes published his book
setting up the doctrine of the hollow globe
with crust of 900 miles thickness, in
1924 He held the earth to be open at both
poles, the verge of the aperture being about
100. He contended that the true magnetic
pole is at about S00 and if one goes beyond
that the "pole is behind him. The open
ings from verge to verge he held to be
about 800 miles. Passing the pole, GER
tainly at $40, focks of wild birds will be
met, the temperature will decline as one
proceeds, warm weather will take the
place of arctic rigors, strange wild beasts
will appear and temperate zone will be
entered.
The recent support Symmes, Jr., finds for
his fathers theory, which has been
the butt and jest of scientists, is III
Greely's discovery, according to Symmes,
that as he went farther north the
weather grew noticeably warmer He
claims that Greely's men once saw a valley
sixty miles wide, and full of game, and that
the farther he pushed northward the milder
| became the climate; that on some of his
excursions he waded brooks and swan riv-
ers. Where Symmes obtained this infor-
nation relative to Greely's discoveries he
did not state, and we may very well doubt |
his accuracy. 1t was probably born of his |
fervid fancy, since the general public has |
not been instructed that any such wonder
ful revelations opened up to Greedy. Had |
he seen valley of sixty miles, filled with |
game, he would not have lacked for sup
plies.
Symmes, Jr., claims that after the ex-
plorer passes $50 he descends by easy and |
imperceptible progression into the earth and |
actually goes in a Southerly direction, thus
accounting for the change in temperature,
and this change in turn establishes the fact |
that he has doubled on his course and come
southwark. He alleged, in his recent lect-
ure, that Nordenskjold futile, Sarben and |
other explorers found the climate to grow
mild as they went north from given point, |
and that they finally reached land where
great trees grew. Nordenskiold believed it
to be Siberia, and futile and Sarben found
in that wonderful country, game elephants,
powerful men and rank vegetation More
were observed by many explorers coming
from the Polar Sea, and those killed bore
in their crops half-digested semi-tropic veg
citation; that these birds came out of the
hOllow-belIied paradise of the interior, by
way of the north Polar Sea; that beyond
$50 degrees there is land he calls Symmes-
zonia, inhabited by gigantic race, replete
with fine game, and rich in plants, fruits
and earth products suitable for sustaining
human life. He further held that Parry, |
in his third voyage, found the temperature
to decline as he went north and finally the
ice grew too thin to bear his weight and |
the pitch melted on his decks, while at so
the needle pointed behind him. Finally |
he claimed much for his theory on the fact |
that Ross Kane and Hull found an open, |
endless Arctic Sea clear of ice and on its
margin countless fockS of birds.
Symmes theory is only worthy of notice |
for its oddly, inaccuracy and as illustrating
the tcnacity with which the human intelli- |
gcncc, in rare instances, will cling to some |
of the widest fancies and pervert facts into |
testimony coroboratiye of its visionary
ideas
Thus there are no proofs that Greedy |
made any such discoveries as are attributed
to him. The North Star reached 100 81 |
and the Assistance and Pioneer $50 10', |
Hayes So 80, Hall SO 16', Koldewey so
;, Kane so D., and every one of them |
found the way barred by ice. Kane, it is |
true. reported an open polar channel to the |
northwest leading into an open polar sea
of ever expanding area and free from ice. |
| Pctterman, at 500 ~, found only glaciers |
and snow fields and coast forty miles be
vond locked in Arctic bonds of ice and |
snow. Ross did locate the true magnetic |
! pole at 70o 3 The fluctuations of the |
needle noted by Parry began as low down |
as go 80 To-, and were due to local attrac- |
ton. OF course at the true mag
netic pole ii would reverse The veg
citation found in the highest latitudes thus
! far reached has been confined to scanty
growth of moses and ichenS, anglo
sperms and some grassy slopes. belong,
on Henrietta Island, 10 s., found a few
old deer horns some fossils, and one
degree south, on Bennett Island, |
some erased valleys and numerous birds. |
1t is true that Parry reported remarkably
warm weather in q high latitude on his
third voyage in the summer of 1926, but
he remarks upon t as phenomenal only as
the preceding summers in the same lat-
tude for several years had been bitterly
cold and We're snow-robed.
The only profit that can be found in thus
casually noticing the pitiful plea of the
ancient Symmes Jr., for aid to discover the
mythical Symmeszonia, is in the opportu-
nifty it affords TO again discourage any more
foolhardy expeditions into the Arctic re-
eions, and TO which even the crazy specu-
lations of such a man as Symmes may
give some encouragement. There has
really been nothing in the most recent Arc
tic researches to give the slightest encour-
agement to further expeditions northward,
such as have been fitted ont in the past.
They have all been full of woe and dis
tresS, and have not compensated in geo.
graphic knowledge for the misery they
entailed. 1t is already limited that Greedy
will go back to the Arctic with a new force
4 e |. 1 =. Il i j l. Al.