me to believe in the existence of a photic
force, somewhat similar to the cathode ray, but of infinitely greater
significance and importance to the searcher after physical truth.
Simply described, his discovery was a powerful ray produced by a new
combination of electric lights, which would penetrate down into the
earth, passing through all substances which it met in its way, and
illuminating and disclosing everything through which it passed.

All matter likely to be found beneath the surface of the earth in that
part of the country had been experimented upon by Clewe, and nothing
had resisted the penetrating and illuminating influence of his ray--well
called Artesian ray, for it was intended to bore into the bowels of the
earth. After making many minor trials of the force and powers of
his light, Roland Clewe had undertaken the construction of a massive
apparatus, by which he believed a ray could be generated which, little
by little, perhaps foot by foot, would penetrate into the earth and
light up everything between the farthest point it had attained and the
lenses of his machine. That is to say, he hoped to produce a long hole
of light about three feet in diameter and as deep as it was possible
to make it descend, in which he could see all the various strata and
deposits of which the earth is composed. How far he could send down this
piercing cylinder of light he did not allow himself to consider. With
a small and imperfect machine he had seen several feet into the ground;
with a great and powerful apparatus, such as he was now constructing,
why should he not look down below the deepest point to which man's
knowledge had ever reached? Down so far that he must follow his
descending light with a telescope; down, down until he had discovered
the hidden secrets of the earth!

The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence
over all other penetrating rays, was the power it possessed of
illuminating an object; passing through it; rendering it transparent and
invisible; illuminating the opaque substance it next met in its path,
and afterwards rendering that transparent. If the rocks and earth in the
cylindrical cavities of light which Clewe had already produced in his
experiments had actually been removed with pickaxes and shovels, the
lighted hole a few feet in depth could not have appeared more real, the
bottom and sides of the little well could not have been revealed more
sharply and distinctly;