The idea that the world we inhabit might be a hollow one contradicts all that science tells us but even today, in an age dominated by technology and where orbiting satellites scan every square metre of Earth, there are those who maintain that our planet has no central core. This is a place of the inner Sun, where UFOs come from and where just a handful of humans claim to have successfully journeyed too. Is it real, is it any less tangible than the concept of extraterrestrial visitors from the far side of our galaxy?
Stories of subterranean worlds accessible either by way of polar openings, or antedeluvian tunnels located at various points on the earth's surface, have long held a fascination for mankind. The exploits of Admiral Richard E Byrd and his mysterious statement, "I'd like to see that land beyond the Pole. That area beyond the Pole is the center of the great unknown," has intrigued and fascinated those who hold with the Hollow Earth theory. If Byrd didn't stand at the doorway to an inner world then what did he mean by his remark?
His well-equipped and intriguingly well-armed expedition to the South Pole in 1946-1947 resulted in some remarkable discoveries. Amongst them was Bungar's Oasis, named after Commander David Bungar who was at the controls of one of the six large transport aircraft used by Byrd during the U.S. Navy's Operation Highjump, when he located it in February 1947. For months Bungar and his crew had been flying over the white polar wasteland and had seen nothing worth reporting. Then one day, while heading inland from the Queen Mary Coast of Wilkes Land, Bungar spotted a dark lake-filled area ahead of them which was completely free of ice and snow. The lakes were each some three miles long and composed of different colors, ranging from rusty red and green to a deep blue. The water they contained was much warmer than the ocean, as Bungar discovered after landing his seaplane on one of the lakes. This remarkable oasis consisted of an area some three hundred square miles and was curiously formed in the shape of a rough square. On two sides great ice walls rose nearly 100ft, while the others formed a gradual and gentle slope.
Most historical writers who support the theory of an inner Earth have concluded that it is inhabited by a race of small brown-skinned people, perhaps related to the Eskimo. Some make reference to the fact that a majority of UFO sightings appear to occur on a north-south alignment and claim, as a result, that this points to the Earth's true source of aliens and their craft.
Two books written earlier last century both drew heavily on the factual accounts of Arctic explorers as proof that we could only be living on the outside of a hollow world. In 1906, William Reed published, The Phantom of the Poles, while fourteen years later, A Journey to the Earth's Interior, or, Have the Poles Really Been Discovered? was released by Marshall B Gardner. Both works are now exceedingly rare and of the two Gardner's is considered to be the most thorough in its research.
Within its 450 pages, Gardner claims that the Earth is a hollow shell arond 800 miles thick in its crust, containing an opening at each polar end of approximately 1,400 miles across. He believed that the mammoth still lives in the interior -- its true origin. He points out in his book that many birds and animals of northern latitudes actually migrate further north in order to find warmer weather in which to feed and breed. He quotes the fact that as explorers travel beyond 80deg north latitude, they find the water becoming warmer due to a balmy current flowing from the polar region. Many also encountered fine red pollen on the icebergs and glaciers.
Gardner writes in reference to an arctic explorer's notes, "That the musk-ox is not the only animal to be found where we should hardly expect it, is evident from another note in Hayes' diary. When he was in latitude 78deg, 17min, early in July, he says, 'I secured a yellow-winged butterfly and - who would believe it - a mosquito. And these I add to ten moths, three spiders, two bumble bees and two flies.' "
Gardner cites the valuable observations made by Greely who, in 1881, began his Three Years of Arctic Service, has he called his book. In the preface to this book, Greely tells us that the wonders of the Arctic regions are so great that he modified his actual notes made at the time and understated them rather that lay himself open to the suspicion of exaggerating. That the Arctic regions are so full of life and strange evidence of a life even further north, that an explorer cannot describe it all without being accused of exaggerating, is surely a very strange thing, if those regions lead only to a barren Pole of everlasting ice.
To be continued
