CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 71 



he left Carlisle at 5.30 A.M., walked 42 miles in eleven 

 hours and a half, and was naturally much exhausted. 

 Slept at Manchester, rising at 6.30 A.M., and reached 

 Baltimore at 3 P.M.; found his trunk, which had gone 

 by stage to Cockey's Hotel, and at 4 P.M. took the train 

 to Washington, where he arrived at 6.30. 



He went to his Uncle Penrose's house, where he received 

 a hearty welcome. His time was well taken up visiting 

 the public buildings, calling on old acquaintances and 

 making new ones. He was especially interested in the 

 libraries and the Museum of the Patent Office, where 

 collections from the Wilkes Exploring Expedition had 

 begun to arrive. 



The project of an exploring expedition to be sent out 

 by the United States, similar to those which many Euro- 

 pean governments had organized, had been mooted for 

 many years, but without result. John N. Reynolds had 

 proposed it as early as iSzS. 21 The tradition current 

 among the Smithsonian habitues in 1865 was to the effect 

 that the stimulus which finally stirred Congress to action 

 in the matter was due to the activities of a Captain 

 Symmes, who had become obsessed with the idea that 

 the earth was a hollow sphere, with openings at the poles, 

 and possibly inhabitants in the interior. In order that 

 his theory might be proved true he came to Washington 

 and urged upon Congress to equip an expedition to what 

 was popularly known as "Symmes' Hole." Preposterous 

 as it now seems he was said to have made such an impres- 

 sion on a large number of Congressmen that an appro- 

 priation was on the point of being voted, when some of 

 the better informed members succeeded in modifying the 



21 For an account of Reynolds' activities in this line see Biography 

 of J. D. Dana, by D. C. Gilman, New York, Harpers, 1899, pp. 45-49. 



