CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 7A 
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 1828.7) The tradition current 
among the Smithsonian habitués 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. 
