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                              THE HOLLOW EARTH

                               [Part 9 of 15]

               
                The Greatest Geographical Discovery in History

                   By Dr. Raymond Bernard  B.A., M.A. Ph.D.


                                
                                  Chapter V

                   WAS THE NORTH POLE REALLY DISCOVERED?

    
    On April 21, 1808, Dr. Frederick A. Cook announced that he had 
reached the North Pole.  His announcement was followed a few days later 
by one from Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary, who claimed to reach the 
North Pole on April 6, 1909. Both men hurled accusations against the 
other, claiming that they discovered the North Pole and that the other 
did not. Cook accused Peary, saying that he had appropriated some of 
his reports on his return from the Pole. But Cook failed to have any  
written record that he had made of his trip, and this made his reports 
seem suspicious.

    Though Cook claimed to be the first to reach the North Pole, Peary 
is generally given credit to have been the first to discover it. Cook's 
claim was discredited because the sun's altitude was only a few degrees 
above the horizon and was so low at the time that observations of it 
as proof of his position were worthless. Peary reached, or claimed he 
reached, the North Pole in April, fifteen days earlier in the season, 
and hence under more adverse solar conditions. His calculations are 
therefore more open to suspicion than Cook's.

    Also, Cook has no witnesses that he found the North Pole, other than 
Eskimos. The same is true of Peary, who lacked witnesses through choice, 
having ordered the men on the expedition to remain behind, while he went 
on alone with one Eskimo companion to the Pole. While Cook was doubted 
when he claimed to make 15 miles a day, Peary claimed to have made over 
20 miles. The argument whether Cook or Peary, or neither, discovered 
the North Pole is still not perfectly settled.

    There is one factor in Peary's dash to the Pole that casts suspicion 
on his claim to have reached it. This was the remarkable speed at which 
he claimed to travel, or would have had to travel to reach the North 
Pole and return during the time he did. When he neared the 88th parallel 
north latitude, he decided to attempt a final dash to the Pole in five 
days. He made 25 miles the first day; 20 miles on the second day; 20 
miles on the third day; 25 miles on the fourth; and 40 miles on the 
fifth. His five-day average was 26 miles a day. Can a man walk that 
fast under the incredibly difficult conditions of the North Pole area, 
supposedly an ice-terrain described by the men in the atomic submarine 
"Skate" as fantastically jumbled and jagged? And yet, further south, 
with presumably better conditions of travel, he was able to average
only 20 miles a day.

    From these facts we must conclude that neither Cook nor Peary 
reached the true North Pole, since, according to the theories presented 
in this book, it does not exist. What Cook and Peary reached was probably 
the magnetic rim of the polar opening or depression, where the compass 
points straight down, but not the Pole itself, which lies in the center 
of this opening. Peary may have traveled for the distance he calculated 
as correct to reach the North Pole, but what he really did was to 
travel this same distance either around or into the depression or opening
which exists in this part of the world, into which Admiral Byrd entered; 
and the further he would travel the deeper he would go into this opening, 
without ever reaching the true Pole.

    Scientific societies that considered Cook's and Peary's claims to 
reach the North Pole concluded that in neither case could it be said 
authoritatively that the explorer had reached the Pole.

    Cook's claim to have reached the Pole was based on his promise to 
prove it by field notes and mathematical observations. But he was never 
able to present any notes. He claimed that Peary caused some of this 
data to be buried. But in time the faith in Cook turned into skepticism, 
which was started by Peary's denial of Cook's claim. Peary's denial 
was supported by Cook's failure to present proper scientific data. Rear 
Admiral Melville of the United States Navy, an old time Arctic explorer,
said in an interview at the time:

    "It was the crazy dispatches purporting to have come from Dr. Cook 
    about the conditions he found there, and other things, that caused 
    a doubt in my mind about Cook's having found the Pole."

    According to Dr. Tittman, Cook and Peary could not have traveled on 
foot over solid ice to reach the North Pole, because practically all 
scientists agree that this is not the fact. Some think there is open sea 
there and others fertile land. All explorers who have gone far enough 
north found open sea. As for fertile land there, this would only be 
possible according to our own theory of a polar opening and central sun, 
since, according to the theory of a solid earth, it should get colder and
colder the further north one goes.  But Arctic explorers found the 
opposite to be true. They found it warmer near the, Pole than further 
south. But even if the cold at the Pole was not enough to freeze the 
sea, how could it be warm enough to permit fertile land unless our 
theory is correct?  Since all polar explorers agree that there is open 
sea in this region (the polar orifice), but ice further south, it is 
clear that Cook did not go as far north as he thought he went.

    When the Swedish Academy of Sciences and University of Copenhagen 
examined Cook's claims, they decided that he had not proved that he 
reached the Pole. Peary gave the following report to the Associated 
Press:

    "Cook was not at the North Pole on April 21, 1908, nor at any 
    other time. Cook's story should not be taken too seriously. The 
    two Eskimos who accompanied him say he went no distance north, 
    and not out of sight of land. Other members of the tribe 
    commemorate this story. He has simply handed the public a gold 
    brick."


    But when Peary returned to civilization his own story sounded as 
dubious as Cook's.  He had taken even fewer observations of his alleged 
position than Cook had done.  The fact that he left his white companions 
behind and had no witnesses cast doubt on his claims.  When Cook was 
doubted when he said he made fifteen miles a day in sledge traveling, 
Peary claimed he made over twenty, and even forty. Since it is 
impossible to make forty miles a day on a dog sledge, which is admitted 
to be slower travel than on foot, this claim seems impossible. When 
questioned whether he traveled faster on the dog sledge than on foot, 
Peary admitted:
    
    "In Arctic expeditions a man is lucky if he is able to walk without 
    pushing the sledge. Usually he must grip the rear and push it ahead. 
    It is like guiding a breaking plow drawn by oxen. You must also 
    expect at any moment that the sledge may strike some pressure ridge 
    that will wrench you off your feet."

    According to  Peary's statement it seems impossible that he could 
travel at speeds of twenty to forty miles a day over Arctic ice and keep 
it up for eight days, after doing equally arduous work for months.

    For this reason, after examining Cook's and Peary's data, Honorable 
Mr. Miller concludes:

    "The question whether Cook or Peary discovered the North Pole may 
    never be solved. It seems to be one of history's puzzles, and to 
    remain a matter of one man's word against another."

    When Peary submitted his proofs for investigation, the Congressional 
Committee that examined them acknowledged in Congress that Peary had not, 
no more than Cook, proved his claim of reaching the Pole. Peary claimed 
he traveled a distance of 270 miles from eighty-seven degrees, forty-
seven minutes North to the Pole and back to the same latitude in seven 
days and a few hours. This speed seems impossible in the polar region.

    Cook admitted he did not reach the Pole in his book he wrote after 
he returned from his expedition, in which he wrote:

    "Did I actually reach the North Pole?...If I was mistaken in 
    approximately placing my feet upon the pin-point (North Pole) about 
    which this controversy has raged, I maintain it was the inevitable 
    mistake any man must make. To touch that spot would be an accident."

    This created an international scandal. After foreign kings and 
universities had congratulated and showered honors on Cook, later it 
was discovered they had been duped.  Now, after one American explorer 
(Cook) was found to have made a false claim,  it would reflect badly 
the reputation of the United States if another (Peary) was found, after 
examination, to also make a false claim. This would lead to ridicule in  
the foreign press.  To prevent this, the Congress of the United States
appointed a committee of the National Geographical Society, which gave 
a favorable verdict on Peary's discovery after a cursory examination of 
his field notes, and it was hoped this would settle the matter, so that 
the world may consider an American explorer, Peary, to have discovered 
the North Pole. It was hoped this would settle the matter, and prevent 
one false claim about the discovery of the North Pole by an American 
from following the other.

    However, a year after the committee of the National Geographical 
Society made a favorable verdict on Peary's claim, a new Congressional 
investigation was made and its verdict was that Peary did not prove his 
claims because his statements were not backed by a single white witness.  
The committee made the verdict of "not proven."

    But Peary never replied to the charges made against him, and wished 
to end his career by retiring with the rank of Rear Admiral, which carried 
a pension with it of $6,000 a year.  Friends of Peary brought into 
Congress a bill to retire him. One would think that before he retired an 
inquiry would be made whether or not he reached the Pole, but no inquiry 
was made. While the United States government refused to  officially  
endorse  Peary's discovery, it could not afford to lower its prestige 
before the world by announcing that he did not discover the North Pole.

    "I am satisfied that Peary did not discover the Pole for two reasons:

    "1. In spite of all the talk there has been about scientific data 
    brought back by him and furnished as evidence, the fact is that his 
    claim to the discovery in question is backed by his unsupported word, 
    and by nothing else.
    
    "2.  All of the other claims to discoveries in the Arctic region by 
    Peary have been proven false. Why, then, should we accept as true 
    his unsupported statement that he arrived at the Pole?"

    At a Congressional Hearing, Mr. Tittmann, superintendent of the U.S. 
Coast Survey, was asked:  "What evidence is there that this party 
consisting of Peary and others, reached the Pole?"

    Mr. Tittmann replied: "I have no evidence of that except the 
soundings recorded under Peary's signature. Peary brought back nothing - 
no witnesses, no worthwhile scientific proof, nothing but his unsupported
word to back up his claim to have discovered the Pole. But, inasmuch as 
his reputation for veracity has been completely shattered by the fact 
that every other claim of discovery made by him has proven false, there 
is nothing that the world can accept as demonstrating that at any time 
he has been anywhere near the Pole."

    Due to the irregular action of the compass in the polar region and 
the fact that the  sun was barely above the horizon when both explorers 
were there, making it difficult to make measurements, in a region where 
it is easy for an explorer to get lost due to difficulty in ascertaining 
his position, it is probable that neither Cook or Peary really found 
the North Pole,  even if they thought they did. This is confirmed by the 
fact that every previous Arctic explorer found warmer conditions and open 
sea very far north, while Cook and Peary claimed they traveled over ice.
This would indicate that they were in points further south and if they 
had gone further north they would reach open sea. Commenting on this 
fact, Marshall B. Gardner, in his book, "A Journey to the Earth's 
Interior or Were the Poles Really Discovered," writes:

    "Had they (Cook and Peary) gone further they would have found open 
and increasing temperature. Had they then possessed boats they could 
have launched on that sea and the way to the goal and to the truth would 
have been clear. They would have seen the earth's central sun shining  
even in the winter, shining all of the twenty-four hours and all of the 
year, and they would have discovered new continents and oceans, a new 
world of land and water and of forms of life some of which have vanished 
from the outside of the globe.

    "But it was not to be.  The discovery of that new land was left to 
those who, following the theory outlined in this book, and using such 
safe means of Arctic traveling as the airplane and dirigible, will fly 
over the eternal barrier of ice to the warmer sea beyond and over that 
until they come into the realm of perpetual sunlight. "

    Gardner's claim was confirmed by the two expeditions of Admiral Byrd, 
which traveled by airplane through the openings at the North and South 
Poles and came to this warmer land, where they saw a new strange form 
of animal life, as well as trees, green vegetation, mountains and lakes, 
though the expeditions did not penetrate the polar openings far enough 
to reach the tropical land of perpetual sunlight in the earth's interior, 
about which Gardner speaks. But such a land and such a sun must exist 
if Admiral Byrd's observations of a warmer territory beyond the Poles 
are correct.



                                  Chapter VI

                         THE ORIGIN OF THE ESKIMOS

    William F. Warren, in his book, "Paradise Found, or the Cradle of the 
Human Race," presents the view that the human race originated on a 
tropical continent in the Arctic, the famed Hyperborea of the ancient 
Greeks, a land of sunshine and fruits, whose inhabitants, a race of gods, 
lived for over a thousand years without growing old.

    The ancient writings of the Chinese, Egyptians, Hindus and other races, 
and the legends of the Eskimos, speak of a great opening in the north and 
a race that lives under the earth's crust, and that their ancestors came 
from this paradisical land in the Earth's interior. (May not Santa Claus 
represent a race memory of a benefactor of humanity who came from this 
subterranean race, who came to the surface through the north polar 
opening - perhaps on a flying saucer, symbolized by his flying sled and 
reindeer?)

    Most writers on the subject claim that the interior of the earth is 
inhabited by a race of small brown-skinned people and also say that the 
Eskimos, whose racial origin differs from that of all other races on the 
earth's surface, came from this subterranean race. One explorer declared 
that those known as the Arctic Highlanders came from the interior of the 
earth. When the Eskimos were asked where their forefathers came from, 
they pointed to the north. Some Eskimo legends tell of a paradisical land 
of great beauty to the north. Eskimo legends also tell of a beautiful 
land of perpetual light, where there is neither darkness at any time nor 
a too bright sun. 

    This wonderful land has a mild climate where large lakes never 
freeze, where tropical animals roam in herds, and where birds of many 
colors cloud the sky, a land of perpetual youth, where people live for 
thousands of years in peace and happiness.  There is a story of a  
British king named Herla, whom the Skraelings (Eskimos) took to a land 
of paradise beneath the earth. The Irish have a legend about a lovely 
land beyond the north, where are continuous light and summer weather. 
Scandinavian legends tell of a wonderful land far to the north, 
called "Ultima Thule." 

    Palmer comments: "Is Admiral Byrd's `land of mystery, center of the
    great unknown' the same as the `Ultima Thule' of Scandinavian 
    legend?"

    Speaking of the origin of the Eskimo, Gardner says: 
    
    "That the Eskimo came from the interior of the earth, that is to say, 
    from a location which they could not easily explain to the Norwegians 
    who might have asked them where they originally came from, is shown 
    by the fact that the early Norwegians regarded them as a supernatural 
    people, a species of fairy.  When we remember that in the efforts of 
    these Eskimos to tell where they came from they would point to the 
    north and describe a land of perpetual sunshine, it is easy to see 
    that the Norwegians who associated the polar regions with the end of 
    the world, certainly not with a new world, would wonder at the strange 
    origin thus indicated. They would naturally assume that these were 
    supernatural beings who came from some region under the earth - as 
    that was always considered to be the abode of fairies, gnomes and 
    similar creatures."
    
    And according to Nansen this is precisely what happened. He says:
    
    "I have already stated that the Norse name 'Skraeling' for Eskimo 
    must have originally been used as a designation of fairies or 
    mythical creatures. Furthermore there is much that would imply that 
    when the Icelanders first met with the Eskimo in Greenland they 
    looked upon them as fairies. They, therefore, called them `trolls,'
    an ancient common name for various sorts of supernatural beings. 
    This view persisted more or less in later times."

    Nansen goes on to tell us that when these Skraelings, or Eskimos, were 
mentioned in Latin writings, the word was translated as "Pygmaei," 
meaning "short, undergrown people of supernatural aspect."  In the middle 
ages they were supposed to inhabit Thule, which refers to the ultimate 
land beyond the north. This belief in Thule, a land beyond the Pole, 
inhabited by a strange people, was very widespread.  Nansen tells us that 
from St. Augustine the knowledge of these pigmies reached Isidore, and 
from him it passed over all of medieval Europe - in the sense of a 
fabulous people from the uttermost parts of the north, a fairy people.

    A Welshman, Walter Mapes, in the latter part of the twelfth century, in 
his collection of anecdotes, tells of a prehistoric king of Briton called 
Herla, who met with the Skraelings or Eskimos, who took him beneath the 
earth. Many early legends tell of people going under the earth into a 
strange realm, staying there for a long period of time and later returning. 
The ancient Irish had a legend of a land beyond the sea where the sun 
always shone and it was always summer weather. They even thought that 
some of their heroes had gone there and returned - after which they were 
never satisfied with their own country.

    A thirteenth century Norwegian writer is quoted by Nansen, according 
to whom the Eskimos were believed at this time to be a supernatural 
people, small in stature, and hence different in their origin than the 
other inhabitants of the earth. Gardner writes:
    
    "Nansen says that Eskimo settlements increase not only by the tribe 
    growing in numbers, but by `fresh immigration from the north,' which 
    clearly points to further additions from the interior of the earth.
    
    "That they originally came from a land of constant sunshine, from a 
    country much past the northern ice barrier is the tradition of the 
    Eskimos themselves, and it is a tradition which must be given full 
    weight, for it could not have arisen among them in the first place 
    without cause. On this point Dr. Senn says: `When questioned as to 
    the land of their origin, they invariably point north without having 
    the faintest perception what this means.'
    
    "Naturally the Eskimos do not know that the earth is hollow and that 
    ages ago they lived in its interior, but they have clung to that one 
    simple fact - they came from the north. Dr. Senn denies that they 
    have any characteristics in common with the North American Indian and 
    thinks that they are the remnant of `the oldest inhabitants of the 
    western hemisphere.' In this attributing of great antiquity to them 
    he may be right - at least he there agrees with Nansen. But the 
    interior of the earth and not the western hemisphere is evidently the 
    place of their original abode.

    "As for the land of perpetual sunshine, the Eskimo, of course, does 
    not remember that as something he himself has seen, for it is very 
    questionable if any of the Eskimos of the present generation have ever 
    penetrated to the interior. But it is a well known fact that every 
    race has its idea of a `golden age' or paradise which is generally 
    composed of the elements being handed down in its stories and myths
    as being characteristic of its earliest home. Thus the Eskimo legends 
    handed down generation after generation, tales of the interior land
    with its ever shining sun, and what could be more natural than when 
    the Eskimo came to build in fancy a paradise for himself and his 
    loved ones after they should die, that he should reconstruct this
    first home of which he had heard only dim legends?  That at any rate, 
    is just what he had done. 
    
    Dr. Senn, discussing their religion says:
    
    "They believe in a future world. The soul descends beneath the earth 
    into various abodes - the first of which is somewhat in the nature of 
    a purgatory. But the good spirits passing through it find that the 
    other mansions improve till at a great depth they reach that of 
    perfect bliss, where the sun never sets, and where by the side of 
    great lakes that never freeze, the deer roam in large herds and the 
    seal and the walrus always abound in the waters.'
    
    "That paradise might serve as almost a literal description of the 
    land in the interior of the earth, and the way in which the Eskimo 
    indicates a preliminary purgatory before it can be reached may be 
    the reflection of a memory handed down in the tribe of the great 
    hardships and difficulties of the ice barrier between that wonderful 
    home  and the present situation of the Eskimo on the southern side 
    of that great natural obstacle.
    
    "It is also interesting to note that when the Eskimo first saw 
    Peary's effort to get further north than the great ice-cap of 
    Greenland - beyond which they themselves had no ambition to explore - 
    they immediately thought that the reason for his trying to get 
    further north was to get into communication with other tribes there.
    That idea would hardly have occurred to them if it were not for the 
    fact that they had traditional or other evidence of people in the  
    supposedly unpopulated north.
    
    "With such a weight of evidence all pointing one way it is very 
    hard to resist the conclusion that in the Eskimo we find a type, 
    changed now and mixed with other types, but still something of a 
    type of human being that has inhabited or very likely still inhabits 
    the interior of the earth. We can certainly find no origin for them 
    that explains their present situation. And their legends admit of 
    no other explanation either. For those legends certainly point to 
    the same sort of land as every chapter of this book has pointed 
    to - a land of perpetual sunlight and a mild climate, a land
    corresponding to the `Ultima Thule' of ancient legend and that may, 
    sooner than the skeptic expects, be opened up once more to those 
    who go properly equipped to seek it."

    Gardner says that both the Eskimo and Mongolian race came from the 
interior of the earth, since they resemble each other in many ways, 
including the unusual formation of  their eyes, so different from that of 
other races. 

    Gardner writes:
    
    "It is quite possible that the Eskimos are not descended from any 
tribes driven out of China as that might imply, but that the Chinese as 
well as the Eskimos originally came from the interior of the earth.


                           [End of Part 9 of 15]

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