“’Tis midnight’s holy hour, and silence now is brooding o’er a still and pulseless world.
“What an eventful day! In old Lisbon a few hours, made a few purchases—paper to hold stuff enough to startle the world—saw Sir Marmaduke on the steps of the Cathedral; he did not answer my salute. If I live, he shall know me better. If—oh, that terrible ‘if’! that brief halt, that in all our hopes arises to console us, that brief halt that excuses impotency for failure, chills me.
“Had a long chat with my chief, Oseba, re our polar journey. Strange, I speak of this with candour, and make my plans as if it were actual, and yet my judgment scoffs at my foolish dreams, for, as a fact, it must be the delusion of a madman. So I thought at 4 p.m.—
“Later.
“Promptly at eight, the party of last evening re-assembled in the captain’s cabin. All seated at the table, Amoora Oseba handed round some fine cigars, the glasses were filled, and the skipper said, ‘Now, Mr. Oseba, we would like to hear further from you, for if you are insane, there seems to be method in your madness. If you are a joker, you are a most charming entertainer, but if you are sane and candid, for the world’s good you should remain quiet, only when necessary to refresh yourself for further effort.’
“The captain had prepared a six-inch globe by removing the axial core, and paring down the outer openings so as to leave it oval with the outer curves for Mr. Oseba’s convenience in making his illustrations—this was Oseba’s ‘apple,’ the core removed.
“On rising, Mr. Oseba thanked the captain for his courtesy, and raising the globe, he reminded the party that he was to review the observations of experienced men in support of what to him was more than a theory. He asked his friends to fix in their minds the new form of our globe, for that was important.
“He first called attention to the fact that all the extreme North Polar regions were rich with the waste or remains of animal and vegetable life. This was ‘settled.’ ‘All navigators agree,’ he said, ‘that hibernating animals, say above 80 or even 78°, go north to winter; and that driftwood comes from the north with flowers unknown to botanists. In high latitudes birds and swarms of insects come from the north in spring, and Tyson’s men killed many of these migrating birds for food for his crew. In the craws of these birds there were found undigested grains of wheat, some of which were planted and grew in California. The kernel of this wheat was three times the common size, and California seasons were too short for its ripening. Now, whence came the birds, the wheat, and the insects? Plainly, from “Symmes’ Hole.” Greely found the ice but four feet thick at 82°, and less than two feet at 84°, so the ice would not bear the boats, and many navigators report an open polar sea, and greatly agitated waters at high latitudes.