Part 6 - Conclusion
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| to byerly's hollow earth |
to the olaf jansen index | the author's foreword |
olaf jansen's story |
beyond the north wind |
in the under world |
among the ice packs |
the author's afterword |
In concluding this history of my adventures, I wish to state that I firmly believe
science is yet in its infancy concerning the cosmology of the earth. There is so much that
is unaccounted for by the world's accepted knowledge of to-day, and will ever remain so
until the land of "The Smoky God" is known and recognized by our geographers. It
is the land from whence came the great logs of cedar that have been found by explorers in
open waters far over the northern edge of the earth's crust, and also the bodies of
mammoths whose bones are found in vast beds on the Siberian coast. Northern explorers have
done much. Sir John Franklin, De Haven Grinnell, Sir John Murray, Kane, Melville, Hall,
Nansen, Schwatka, Greely, Peary, Ross, Gerlache, Bernacchi, Andree, Amsden, Amundson and
others have all been striving to storm the frozen citadel of mystery. I firmly believe
that Andree and two brave companions, Strindberg and Fraenckell, who sailed away in the
balloon "Oreon" from the northwest coast of Spitzbergen on that Sunday afternoon
of July 11, 1897, are now in the "within" world, and doubtless are being
entertained as my father and myself were entertained by the kind-hearted giant race
inhabiting the inner Atlantic Continent. Having, in my humble way, devoted years to these
problems, I am well acquainted with the accepted definitions of gravity, as well as the
cause of the magnetic needle's attraction, and I am prepared to say that it is my firm
belief that the magnetic needle is influenced solely by electric currents which complitely
envelop the earth like a garment, and that these electric currents in an endless circuit
pass out of the southern end of the earth's cylindrical opening, diffusing and spreading
themselves over all the "outside" surface, and rushing madly on in their course
toward the North Pole. And while these currents seemingly dash off into space at the
earth's curve or edge, yet they drop again to the "inside" surface and continue
their way southward along the inside of the earth's crust, toward the opening of the
so-called South Pole. "Mr. Lemstrom concluded that an electric discharge
which could only be seen by means of the spectroscope was taking place on the surface of
the ground all around him, and that from a distance it would appear as a faint display of
Aurora, the phenomena of pale and flaming light which is some times seen on the top of the
Spitzbergen Mountains." - The Arctic Manual, page 739. As to gravity, no
one knows what it is, because it has not been determined whether it is atmospheric
pressure that causes the apple to fall, or whether, 150 miles below the surface of the
earth, supposedly one-half way through the earth's crust, there exist some powerful
loadstone attraction that draws it. Therefore, whether the apple, when it leaves the limb
of the tree, is drawn or impelled downward to the nearest point of resistance, is unknown
to the students of physics. Sir James Ross claimed to have discovered the magnetic pole at
about seventy-four degrees latitude. This is wrong - the magnetic pole is exactly one-half
the distance through the earth's crust. Thus, if the earth's crust is three hundred miles
in thickness, which is the distance I estimate it to be, then the magnetic pole is
undoubtedly one hundred and fifty miles below the surface of the earth, it matters not
where the test is made. And at this particular point one hundred and fifty miles below the
surface, gravity ceases, becomes neutralized; and when we pass beyond that point on toward
the "inside" surface of the earth, a reverse attraction geometrically increases
in power, until the other one hundred and fifty miles of distance is traversed, which
would bring us out on the "inside" of the earth. Thus, if a hole were bored down
through the earth's crust at London, Paris, New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, a distance
of three hundred miles, it would connect the two surfaces. While the inertia and momentum
of a weight dropped in from the "outside" surface would carry it far past the
magnetic center, yet, before reaching the "inside" surface of the earth it would
gradually diminish in speed, after passing the half-way point, finally pause and
immediately fall back toward the "outside" surface, and continue thus to
oscillate, like the swinging of a pendulum with the power removed, until it would finally
rest at the magnetic center, or at that particular point exactly one-half the distance
between the "outside" surface and the "inside" surface of the earth.
The gyraton of the earth in its daily act of whirling around in its spiral rotation - at
the rate greater than one thousand miles every hour, or about seventeen miles per second -
makes of it a vast electro-generating body, a huge machine, a mighty prototype of the
puny-man-made dynamo, which, at best, is but a feeble imitation of nature's original. The
valleys of this inner Atlantis Continet, bordering the upper waters of the farthest north
are in season covered with the most magnificent and luxuriant flowers. Not hundreds and
thousands, but millions, of acres, from which the pollen or blossoms are carried far away
in almost every direction by the earth's spiral gyrations and the agitation of the wind
resulting therefrom, and it is these blossoms or pollen from the vast floral meadows
"within" that produce the colored snows of the Arctic regions that have so
mystified the northern explorers. Kane, vol.I, page 44, says: "We passed
the 'crimson cliffs' of Sir John Ross in the forenoon of August 5th. The patches of red
snow from which they derive their name could be seen clearly at the distance of ten miles
from the coast." La Chambre, in an account of Andree's balloon expedition, on page
144, says: "On the isle of Amsterdam the snow is tinted with red for a considerable
distance, and the savants are collecting it to examine it microscopically. It presents, in
fact, certain peculiarities; it is thought that it contains very small plants. Scorebly,
the famous whaler, had already remarked this." Beyond question, this new
land "within" is the home, the cradle, of the human race, and viewed from the
standpoint of the discoveries made by us, must of necessity have a most important bearing
on all physical, paleontological, archaeological, phylological, and mythological theories
of antiquity. The same idea of going back to the land of mystery - to the very beginning -
to the origin of man - is found in Egyptian traditions of the earlier terrestrial regions
of the gods, heroes and men, from the historical fragments of Manetho, fully verified by
the historical records taken from the more recent excavations of Pompeii as well as
traditions of the North American Indians. *** It is now one hour past midnight - the new
year of 1908 is here, and this is the third day thereof, and having at last finished the
record of my strange travels and adventures I wish given to the world, I am ready, and
even longing, for the peaceful rest which I am sure will follow life's trials and
vicissitudes. I am old in years, and ripe both with adventures and sorrows, yet rich with
the few friends I have cemented to me in my struggles to lead a just and upright life.
Like a story that is well-nigh told, my life is ebbing away. The presentiment is strong
within me that I shall not live to see the rising of another sun. Thus do I conclude my
message. Olaf Jansen.