Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1923-12-26
DREAMS OF BIG
POLAR PARADISE
popular Science Monthlvl

popular Science Monthly
In the proposed transpolar fight
next summer of the new navy dirigi-
Bile Shenandoah lies the most thrill
ing possibility that ever faced single
body of explorers.
In the center of the unknown area
OF the Polar sea may be discovered
vast continent, heated by subterran-
can fires and inhabited by the de-
Scendants of the last Norwegian col
ony of Greenland.
So spectacular is the idea, writes
Lieut.. Commander Fitzhugh Green,
u. S. NJ, officer, scientist and polar
explorer, that it taxes the most gull
BILE imagination. Yet he asserts it to
be encouraged and supported not only
by history and tradition, but by Scien-
tile analysis. Within the boundaries
of the Polar sea spreads the greatest
UNEMPLOYED area on the surface of the
globe 100000 square miles. Geolo-
g1stsa tidal experts and explorers have
presented indisputable proof of the
existence of this lost continent. Only
few years ago Capt. Keenan,, an
American Whaler, reported he had
sighted land northeast of Point Bar
row which is at the northermost end
of Alaska and Peary sighted distant
peaks from. an opposite direction.
Land Mass Is There.
That the land is there, declares
Commander Green, is not open: to
doubt. That it is probably inhabited
he seeks to prove throughsan amazing
mixture of fact and fancy.
History tells us that after Green
land was discovered by Eric the Red
in 985 r. D., the land was colonized
by Morse settlers, who are known to
have lived their in happiness and
prosperity until the fifteenth century
Then,t as in 1914, Europe became a
SfambleS. War and pestilence raVag-
ed civilization. Greenland fell out of
the minds of men. The Norsemen lost
communication with their colony in
the western world.
After the dark ages passed Green
land was rediscovered. Hans Egede
established the first modern settle
mentsbhere in 1921. But the grim re-
|.portshe brought back was tragic be-
yOnds belief
The Norwegian colony-1O,000 peoi
pie; perhaps 100,000-had, to a man,
mysteriously disappeared!
Where did they go?
Where didn't they go is question
! more easily answered, Com. Green as
-serts. Not to sea in,aships for they
had but one or two and there was no
timber for building more. Not slain
by Eskimos for Eskimos are the most
peace-loving people on earth. Not
swept away by plague for germs Go
not thrive in the arctic cold.
ESkimOS Feared Spot.
Eskimo tradition, he declares, Of
fers credible if surprising explana-
tion of their disappearance for it pic
lures the white men sWarming north
to a wonderland the natives long had
known but feared to approach be-
cause of superstitious belief in evil
spirits.
And in that polar paradise, on that
undiscovered continent whose exist
ence science proves. it is quite easy
to believe, writes CON- Green, that
the descendants of the lost Morse col
ony are still living, surrounded by
plenty and having a civilization that
approaches our own!
Iceland, twin of the supposed lost
continent, he shows, is volcanic. Hot
springs and boiling mud abound
there, giving the place a temperate
climate, despite its arctic situation
And he offers scientific proof that a
similar geological and meteorological
situation exists with regard to the
lost co atinent. From this he draws
the amazing conclusion that the lost
continent lies "like atitan emerald in
an alabaster setting, a green; fertile
land, hidden from the world by huge
barrier OF ice, impossible to men in
ships, but readily 4surmountable by
the ZR-1, in whose proposed path the
polar paradise lies.-