Year: 1876

parently been reached. The icy wall,
on either side of the narrow channel,
had grown higher and higher, the chan
nalitself had become narrower and more
crooked. The steamer was frequently


stopped and backed before the end was
reached, it being impossible otherwise
to make the necessary short turns in
the narrow and swift current. The ex-
ploration of this strange ford, or cah-
yon. would have been abandoned soon
after it was undertaken but for two
reasons. One was the idea of Arthur
Thomas, and his influence through the
first mate, young man of his own age,
who shared with him his enthusiastic
explanation of this strange channel.


Their theory was that this swift-fow-
ing current of warm water came from the
open sea, which, as they all believed,
lay only few miles north of them.
This SEQ they believed to be warm, for
many reasons. First, there was the old
school-book fact of the wild ducks and
geese flying northward. Then if the
sea be there, and open, in must be
much warmer than the water of Baffin's
Bay. But much more weishty than all
this to the mind of Arthur, was the
fact that sea of warm water north of
them was an important part of his theo-
ry of hollow world. Men accept facts
that favor their pet theories, as a hen
receives her own chickens, and peck and
quarrel with everything on the other
side, just as the hen treats chickens of
another brood. Once fairly astride of
a hobby, it is no easy matter to dis
mount, and it is very fortunate for
the world that this is true. The hobby
riders are the worlds best workers.
They are the men that stick through
thick and thin, persevere to the end
and accomplish their objects. Colum-
bus had his hobby and discovered his
world. Author Thomas had his hobby
and-well read the story to see whatcame
of it. On this particular occasion there
is no doubt that his theory and his en-
thusiastic support of it did much to
decide the fate or fortune of that day.
But there was another reason of explor-


ing this channel to the end. The
steamer could not be turned around.
There was scarcely room in the widest
place to have turned had the water been
still; with the current surging, foam
ing and dashing as it did against the
icy and rock-bound rides of the canyon,
it was not to be thought of. There was
nothing to be done but to proceed, and
proceed they did as rapidly as the
strong steamer could make her way
against the foaming tide. In six hours
they came to what seemed to be the end.


The water grew calm, there was q
perceptible widening of the channel,
then another gorge still narrower than
any through which they had passed, but
through it they seemed to see the open
sea. Cheer after cheer went up from
the men as the iron vessel entered this
gorge; the oyerhanging walls Of ice took
up the sound and with many reverbera-
tons it died away far back in the dark
canyon through which, with 30 many
fears, they had passed. ~


But alasl it was not the open sea.
The end it was indeed of many hopes
and fears, the end of the wonderful can
yon; but it did not end in the open sea
as they had hoped. The steamer
emerged from the narrow, 10y gateway,
upon the bosom Of small lake or ice
bound sea. II was not more than half
q mile in diameter; except the gate by
which they had entered there seemed
TO be no opening in fhe solid wall of
ice that for more than two thousand
feet lowered up on every side, SO
nearly perpendicular we're these walls,
that looking mp at them from the sur
face of the water one might easily inn
agins himself fly drowning in bar
rel half-flled with water. The mid
night sun was gliding the towers and


pinnacles of the southern rim of this
hugh cauldron, and by contrast the wa
tiers beneath them seemed black as ink.
Az there was room here to put the ves-
sci about and as there was little pre-
ceptible current no danger was ap-