"WillisGeorgeEmerson-TheSmokyGod" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emerson Willis George)

four-score mark) had sought an asylum of restful peace in sun-favored
California, I will undertake to make public his story.
But, first of all, let me indulge in one or two reflections:
Generation follows generation, and the traditions from the misty past are handed
down from sire to son, but for some strange reason interest in the ice-locked
unknown does not abate with the receding years, either in the minds of the
ignorant or the tutored.
With each new generation a restless impulse stirs the hearts of men to capture
the veiled citadel of the Arctic, the circle of silence, the land of glaciers,
cold wastes of waters and winds that are strangely warm. Increasing interest is
manifested in the mountainous icebergs, and marvelous speculations are indulged
in concerning the earth's center of gravity, the cradle of the tides, where the
whales have their nurseries, where the magnetic needle goes mad, where the
Aurora Borealis illumines the night, and where brave and courageous spirits of
every generation dare to venture and explore, defying the dangers of the
"Farthest North."
One of the ablest works of recent years is "Paradise Found, or the Cradle of The
Human Race at the North Pole," by William F. Warren. In his carefully prepared
volume, Mr. Warren almost stubbed his toe against the real truth, but missed it
seemingly by only a hair's breadth, if the old Norseman's revelation be true.
Dr. Orville Livingston Leech, scientist, in a recent article, says:
"The possibilities of a land inside the earth were first brought to my attention
when I picked up a geode on the shores of the Great Lakes. The geode is a
spherical and apparently solid stone, but when broken is found to be hollow and
coated with crystals. The earth is only a larger form of a geode, and the law
that created the geode in its hollow form undoubtedly fashioned the earth in the
same way."
In presenting the theme of this almost incredible story, as told by Olaf Jansen,
and supplemented by manuscript, maps and crude drawings entrusted to me, a
fitting introduction is found in the following quotation:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was
without form and void." And also, "God created man in his own image." Therefore,
even in things material, man must be God-like, because he is created in the
likeness of the Father.
A man builds a house for himself and family. The porches or verandas are all
without, and are secondary. The building is really constructed for the
conveniences within.
Olaf Jansen makes the startling announcement through me, an humble instrument,
that in like manner, God created the earth for the "within" -- that is to say,
for its lands, seas, rivers, mountains, forests and valleys, and for its other
internal conveniences, while the outside surface of the earth is merely the
veranda, the porch, where things grow by comparison but sparsely, like the
lichen on the mountain side, clinging determinedly for bare existence.
Take an egg-shell, and from each end break out a piece as large as the end of
this pencil. Extract its contents, and then you will have a perfect
representation of Olaf Jansen's earth. The distance from the inside surface to
the outside surface, according to him, is about three hundred miles. The center
of gravity is not in the center of the earth, but in the center of the shell or
crust; therefore, if the thickness of the earth's crust or shell is three
hundred miles, the center of gravity is one hundred and fifty miles below the