Part 6 - Conclusion
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.