Having given a surface or bird’s-eye view of the Earth, the following sectional representation will aid in completing the description.
FIG. 11.
E E represents the Earth; W W the “great deep,” or the waters which surround the land; N the northern centre; and S S sections of the southern ice. As the present description is purely zetetic, and as every fact must therefore have its fullest value assigned to it, and its consequences represented, a peculiarity must be pointed out in the foregoing diagram. It will be observed that from about the points E E the surface of the water rises towards the south S S. It is clearly ascertained that the altitude of the water in various parts of the world is much influenced by the pressure of the atmosphere—however this pressure is caused—and it is well known that the atmospheric pressure in the south is constantly less than it is in the north, and therefore the water in the southern region must always be considerably higher than it is in the northern. Hence the peculiarity referred to in the diagram. The following quotation from Sir James Ross’s voyages, p. 483, will corroborate the above statements:—“Our barometrical experiments appear to prove that a gradual diminution of atmospheric pressure occurs as we proceed southwards from the tropic of Capricorn. * * * It has hitherto been considered that the mean pressure of the atmosphere at the level of the sea was nearly the same in all parts of the world, as no material difference occurs between the equator and the highest northern latitudes. * * * The causes of the atmospheric pressure being so very much less in the southern than in the northern hemispheres remains to be determined.”
Thus, putting all theories aside, we have seen that direct experiment demonstrates the important truth, that the Earth is an extended Plane. Literally, “Stretched out upon the waters;” “Founded on the seas and established on the floods;” “Standing in the water and out of the water.” How far the southern icy region extends horizontally, or how deep the waters upon and in which the earth stands or is supported are questions which cannot yet be answered. In Zetetic philosophy the foundation must be well secured, progress must be made step by step, making good the ground as we proceed; and whenever a difficulty presents itself, or evidence fails to carry us farther, we must promptly and candidly acknowledge it, and prepare for future investigation; but never fill up the inquiry by theory and assumption. In the present instance there is no practical evidence as to the extent of the southern ice and the “great deep.” Who shall say whether the depth and extent of the “mighty waters” have a limit, or constitute the “World without end?”
Having advanced direct and special evidence that the surface of the earth is not convex, but, on the contrary, a vast and irregular plane, it now becomes important that the leading phenomena upon which the doctrine of rotundity has been founded should be carefully examined. First, it is contended that because the hull of an outward-bound vessel disappears before the mast head, the water is convex, and therefore the Earth is a globe. In this conclusion, however, there is an assumption involved, viz., that such a phenomenon can only result from a convex surface. Inquiry will show that this is erroneous. If we select for observation a few miles of straight and level railway, we shall find that the rails, which are parallel, appear in the distance to approach each other. But the two rails which are nearest together do so more rapidly than those which are farthest asunder, as shown in the following diagram, [Figure 12].
FIG. 12.
Let the observer stand at the point A, looking in the direction of the arrows; and the rails 1.2.3.4. will appear to join at the point B, but the rail 5.6 will appear to have converged only as far as C towards B.
Again, let a train be watched from the point A in [Figure 13].