Some Cranks and their Crotchets 425 



the lost tribes of Israel? for we read in the Bible 

 that they went up the Euphrates to the north and 

 dwelt in a land where man never dwelt before." 

 Just so ; evidently, Messrs. " Norpensjould," 

 Wiggins, and Tuttle sailed " across the verge " and 

 into the interior country, the concave world, which 

 shall henceforth be known as Symmzonia! The 

 book ends with the triumphant query, " Where 

 were those explorers if not in the Hollow of the 

 Earth, and would they not have come out at the 

 South Pole if they had continued on their course ? " 

 It is sad to have such positive conclusions dis- 

 puted, but even in eccentric lore the doctors are 

 found to disagree. Scarcely had Americus put 

 forth his revised edition, when a pamphlet entitled 

 u The Inner World," by Frederick Culmer, was 

 published at Salt Lake City (1886). Its chapters 

 have resounding titles : " I. The Universal Vacuity 

 of Centres ; II. The Polar Orifices of the Earth ; 

 III. The Alleged Northwest Passage and Symmes' 

 Hole." We are told that although the polar ori- 

 fices have diameters of about a thousand miles 

 each, nevertheless, in spite of Wiggins and Tuttle, 

 " there is no passage to the inner world on the 

 north of America ; " on the contrary, it must be 

 sought within the antarctic circle. But Mr. Cul- 

 mer would discourage rash attempts at exploration, 



