Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-02-06

where hangs the famous thermometer
that has not been removed from ita
place for over one hundred years, and.
registering steadily 11.S2 degrees CEN
tigrade, it has never recorded in all
that time a variation of over 2-100th
OF degree. In other words, it hangs
practically on the line of unchanging
temperature, which is found every
where within the earth's crust at a
greater or less distance from the sur
face, according to the environing con-
ditions.
1t is not likely that the great hole
of the Paris fair can present many
special attractions for visitors. Per-
haps the novelty of the descent con-
siderable Instance into the earth will
I'LL the elevators. The effect is likely
TO be rather enervating. There will
be none of the sense of exhilaratiou
such as comes from being lifted to a
considerable height, ard none of the
inspiriting sensations derived from the
wide-spreading view obtained from
elevations. From top to bottom It
in the ground, with none of the sub
terranean scenery and variety that
give such zest to the labors of M.
Martel, the great French explorer Of
caverns.
AS feat of engineering, the project
will undoubtedly be very interesting.
The presence of the superintendent
levels will be very great. Who knows
that some rock stratum will not be en-
countered that will prove too soft to
withstand the pressure? Who knows
but some unexpected and hopeless
difficulty such as an uncomfortable in
pouring of water may not be met?
When M. Eiffel planned his tower he
knew just what he was doing, and he
had demonstrated the perfect prac-
ticability of his enterprise while the
tower was still on paper. But nobody
knows whether M. Grousset's hole
nearly mile deep can be successfully
dug until the experiment has been
tried. For an enterprise that is to ex-
tend so far into the earth it seems as
yet very much in the air Perhaps
the uncertainties in the way may look
so formidable upon further considera-
ton that the project will, after all, be
abandoned.
The chances are, however, that the
idea may be carried out with perfect
success. There is nothing foolhardy
about it and no great likelihood that
it cannot be achieved There is no
reason why anybody should laugh at
it. Holes in the ground are usually
prosaic things and we know of none
with distinctly humorous aspects, ex-
that original genius, Captain Symmes
of the United States army. 1t will be
remembered that Symmes thought the
central portions of the earth hollow;
that there were entranceWays at the
poles, and that the luminous atmos-~
phere of this great hole in the earth,
shining through the entrance ways,
gave rise to the aurora borealis. There
is pathos, as we'll as humor, in the
story of his remarkable devotion to his
strange idea and his fine elaboration
of the plans for sailing into one of
these entrance ways. 1t occurred to
him that when he reached the en-
trance he would have to turn very
sharp corner to proceed from the
outer to the inner sea, which, he ex-
pected, would carry him into the
bowels of the earth; and, as he feared
the sudden changes Of direction would
wrench his tnasts from their fasten-
ings, he planned his craft with jointed
masts that might be quickly lowered
tC the deck Luckily for Symmes, he
died he ore he was rudely awakened
from his dream by an unsympathetic
world.-St. Louis Globe-Democrat.