The Smoky God; Or, A Voyage to the Inner World

Dedicated TO MY CHUM AND COMPANION BONNIE EMERSON MY WIFE
NB: I have removed running heads and page numbers, have joined footnotes spread over two or more pages, have moved footnotes to a position immediately below the paragraph that refers to them, and have changed footnote numbers from 1 at the beginning of each note to a sequence of 1-25. I have also enclosed each footnote number in the text within square brackets and have enclosed each entire footnote within square brackets as well.
Note: I have made the following changes to the text: PAGE NOTE LINE ORIGINAL CHANGED TO 97 10 to too 126 4 Heddekel Hiddekel 139 1 3 Cratyluo Cratylus 147 11 tiouous tinuous 178 18 Los- Los 180 1 17 Scoreby, Scoresby,
He is the God who sits in the center, on the navel of the earth, and he is the interpreter of religion to all mankind. —PLATO.
I FEAR the seemingly incredible story which I am about to relate will be regarded as the result of a distorted intellect superinduced, possibly, by the glamour of unveiling a marvelous mystery, rather than a truthful record of the unparalleled experiences related by one Olaf Jansen, whose eloquent madness so appealed to my imagination that all thought of an analytical criticism has been effectually dispelled.
Marco Polo will doubtless shift uneasily in his grave at the strange story I am called upon to chronicle; a story as strange as a Munchausen tale. It is also incongruous that I, a disbeliever, should be the one to edit the story of Olaf Jansen, whose name is now for the first time given to the world, yet who must hereafter rank as one of the notables of earth.
I freely confess his statements admit of no rational analysis, but have to do with the profound mystery concerning the frozen North that for centuries has claimed the attention of scientists and laymen alike.
However much they are at variance with the cosmographical manuscripts of the past, these plain statements may be relied upon as a record of the things Olaf Jansen claims to have seen with his own eyes.