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ON ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS. 
... . • ■ - ' , , 
Messrs. Editors: It is truly a subject of gratulatiou 
J 
that the Kane expedition has been saved from the prob¬ 
able fate of Franklin. Many seem to think that ail that 
ever can be has now been accomplished in the way of 
Arctic explorations; but to the cosmographer it will only 
awaken a new and intense curiosity to know more on the 
subject, particularly in regard to that unfrozen ocean, 
and not only unfrozen, but teeming with animal life. 
The question naturally arises how it can be that, after 
passing over an icy belt of one hundred and twenty-five 
miles, we then come to an open sea. Such a phenomenon 
can proceed only from some cause as yet unknown to the 
world, and which, in our present state of knowledge, can 
only be a matter of conjecture and speculation; and, in¬ 
asmuch as one has as good right as another to speculate 
on the subject, I will suggest what has long appeared to 
me as more than probable, viz. that this earth is a hollow 
spheroid, with large circular openings at the poles, in 
shape not unlike an apple deeply indented at the ends. 
I should not offer such (apparently) crazy opinion had 
I not what I consider a pretty good reason for it, found¬ 
ed in philosophy. And, in the first place, we take it for 
granted that this earth was once in a molten if not gase¬ 
ous state. Such being the fact, the question comes up, 
what shape would it naturally assume when rotating on 
an axis ? A casual thinker would say it would assume 
the shape that lead does in falling from a shot-tower; 
but such we know would not be the case, a 3 the earth is 
not a sphere like a shot, but a spheroid. In bringing 
out our views more fully we have to controvert the com¬ 
monly received opinion that matter increases in density 
as it approaches the centre of the earth. To us it ap¬ 
pears perfectly philosophical that, at the centre of the 
earth, matter would not only not be denser, but be great¬ 
ly expanded, as all the attraction that could be exerted 
there would b s from the centre. This being the case, to 
which we may add the centrifugal tendency given by the 
diurnal rotation of the earth, we have a sufficient cause 
fo expand the earth into a hollow spheroid, or rather to 
ave made it assume that figure when it was first project¬ 
ed in its diurnal, course from the hand of the great first 
CAUSE. » 
That same law of matter and motion of which we are 
speaking would cause the pole 3 to open, while the body 
oi the earth would become a hollow spheroid. Now, who 
Suad cay that that open sea is not just where the mariner 
would commence sailing into the interior of the earth? 
Aud, y so, he would, not be aware of the fact until he 
^oula see the celestial bodies disappearing below the 
oner*- 18 °® er a conjecture as to the sise of the polar 
8 ho u ld place them at about one thousand miles 
a j A er ’ an< * t ^ ie more interior cavity at between two 
and three thousand. 
