The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-17

several years Hollow Earth Club, men who believed that our earth was a cylinder in shape By sailing northward and thence inward, they argued, man might reach the in terior of the world. Then he would find great race of people living as comfortably and prosperously as ourselves. The aurora or northern lights, they explained, were the re- fIection of prairie fires in the in terior.
 Prior to our sailing away from New York in 1908, Commander Peary received a packet of letters from a learned society. To our surprise and delight they proved to be letters of Introduction to the people at the North Pole.
 Scientists believed that necessari- ly the Polar basin was shallow. One well known author and authority stated that undoubtedly there was large amount of land at the Pole. that he believed our great iceberss had their origin upon the shores of this land.
 Ice Juts Up 10000 Feet.
 And so on down the centuries man has conjectured and the trained scientist has theorized as to actual conditions in the Far North.
 What has the explorer found7 What contribution has he made to add to our knowledge of this little world In which we live? Let mo touch upon a microscopic part of what he has done.
 When Peary disappeared up over the Greenland ice cap in 1892, no one knew how far north the continent of Greenland extended. Many believed to the very pole itself and even on across the top of the world. nearly to the shores of Siberia. When he returned months later he had defined the limits and the altitude of the great Greenland continental ice cap. an area of half a million square miles attaining a height of 10000 feet. great ice Sahara. which graded down In thickness until the day came when he stepped down from the ice into rolling country of bumblebees, but terflies, flowers and herds of musk oxen.
 600 Plants In Coal Beds.
 Ten years later he rounded the most northern end of this great land, placing 1t upon the maps of the world as being located 3S0 miles from the pole.
 within ten degrees of the pole we find coal seams 25 to 30 feet In thick ness and in these deposits more than 600 fossil plants Looking at those great barren hills of the Far North one can hardly conceive that at one tina they were covered with lux uriant growth tf trees. that less than 600 miles from the, pole tempera- ture and even warm climate" pre- vailed. But such Is true asAevidenced by the fossils found among the sand stones and shades some 1000 feet in thickness. There grew the poplar fig, sassafras, magnolia, oak, wal
  wood, eucalyptus, tulip, cypress hazel and redwood of California.
 What tremendous changes through the aeons as this little world speeds through space. For in these same hills. 1,20o feet above the crushed ice oft Polar Sea. we find clam shells. Proof that at one time land was all ocean bottom.
 America Covered 25.OO Years
 "When Greenland and Ellesmere Land were covered with forests and those now. ice-fllled waters were as blue and Afree AS the wate rs off. oRr. -o%n.. coasts wheEe was that,cn aths- =. nautical point known as the Nortn Pole? Was the earth at different inclination to the suns rays or did warm ocean currents flow northward and over the top of the world?
 "rhe northern part of North Amer ice was at one time covered with 2,000,O0o square miles of ice and re- had happened not once but at least five times, with an 3, interglacial period of 75,00) to 125,000 years. The cause? No one really knows. Will it happen again? Why not?
 Greenland Is today covered with area. Here conditions may be studied and are being studied to help the geolLgist in his conclusions a. to the cause of the great ice age and the probability of It's return. With in terest we note that all glaciers in North Greenland and In Ellesmere Land are again advancing and have been during the last 70 years. As all glaciers in the Alps and Alaska are retreating, geologists can hardly credit our observations. 0,000 Feet And No Bottom.
 When Peary reached the pole. what did he find? A vast mass of drift ice slowly moving from the northern shores of Siberia across the top of the earth and flowing south between Spitzbergen and Greenland. No land at the pole--there never has been at that particular point, as was proved by the fact that. through a crack in tho Ice he, dropped a lead to n depth of e.oo1. feet and found no bottom. goo. q r.e,ss's ..~rf 7.{.,.r.
 one surprise after another awaits the Artic ,sexplorer.ts' Six months pf continuous sunshine works wonders Even at the edge; of@the Polar Sea l the snow disappears from the land l Every valley is a rushing river In July. Grass clothes the hills and 1 yellow. blue and white flowers are I sprinkled upon every sunny slope. l The botanist reports more than 700 varieties beyond the Artic circle. The birds return in May, literally mil | lions of them. some even flying to within 400 miles of the pole itself to build their nests, lay their eggs and ] care for their young There we found eggs never before seen by the white man and priceless In value.
 o O O Musk -Oxcn Fnttenr On Frozen Grass. |
 And there, to the surprise of the naturalist, we found great herds of. musk OK en fat and in.G, cd condition. even in the darkness of the winter |