A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder James De Mille

57
"That's a complicated question," said the doctor. "In answer to that
we must leave ascertained facts and trust to theories, unless, indeed,
we accept as valid the statements of this remarkable manuscript.
For my own part, I see no reason why it should not be as More says.
Remember, this polar world is thirteen miles nearer to the centre of
the earth. Whether this should affect the climate or not, depends upon
the nature of the earth's interior. That interior, according to the
popular theory of the present day is a mass of fire. This theory
affirms that the earth was once a red-hot mass, which has cooled down;
but the cooling process has only take place on the surface, leaving
the interior still a molten mass of matter in a state of intense heat
and combustion. At the poles the surface is thus thirteen miles nearer
to these tremendous fires. Of course it may be supposed that the
earth's crust is of about equal thickness on all parts; yet still,
even if this be so, thirteen miles ought to make some difference. Now
at the North Pole there seem to be causes at work to counterbalance
the effect of the internal heat, chiefly in the enormous accumulation
of polar ice which probably hems it in on every side; and though many
believe in an open polar sea of warm water at the North Pole, yet
still the effect of vast ice-masses and of cold submarine currents
must be to render the climate severe. But at the South Pole it is
different. The observations of Ross and of More show us that there is
a chain of mountains of immense height, which seem to encircle the
pole. If this be so, and I see no reason to disbelieve it, then the
ice of the outer seas must be kept away altogether from that strange
inner sea of which More speaks. Ross saw the volcanoes Erebus and
Terror; More saw two others. How many more there may be it is
impossible to say; but all this shows that the effect of the earth's
internal fires is very manifest in that region, and More has
penetrated to a secluded world, which lies apart by itself, free from
the influence of ice-masses, left to feel the effect of the internal
fires, and possessing what is virtually a tropical climate."
"Well," said Melick, "there is no theory however wild and fantastic,
which some man of science will not be ready to support and to fortify
by endless arguments, all of the most plausible kind. For my own part,
I still believe More and his south polar world to be no more authentic
than Sindbad the Sailor."
But the others evidently sympathized with the doctor's view, and