e interior world.

Strange to say that on the very threshold of success there are men who
suddenly take fright at the new conditions that confront them. It
appeared that Boatswain Dunbar and eleven sailors who had unwillingly
sailed thus far refused to proceed further with the ship, being
terrified at the discovery we had made. I could have obliged them to
have remained with us, but their reason being possibly affected, I saw
that their presence as malcontents might in time cause a mutiny, or at
all events an ever-present, source of trouble. They were wildly
anxious to leave the ship and return home; consequently I gave them
liberty to depart. The largest boat was lowered, together with a mast
and sails. I gave the command to Dunbar, and furnished the boat with
ample stores and plenty of clothing. I also gave them one-half of the
dogs and two sledges for crossing the ice. When the men were finally
seated Dunbar cast off the rope and steered for the outer sea. We gave
them a parting salute by firing a gun, and in a short time they were
lost in the darkness of the gulf.

CHAPTER VIII.

EXTRAORDINARY LOSS OF WEIGHT.

The first thought that occurred to us after the excitement of
discovery had somewhat subsided was that the interior of the earth was
in all probability a habitable planet, possessing as it did a
life-giving luminary of its own, and our one object was to get into
the planet as quickly as possible. A continual breeze from the
interior ocean of air passed out of the gulf. Its temperature was much
higher than that of the sea on which we sailed, and it was only now
that we began to think of laying off our Arctic furs.

A closer observation of the interior sun revealed the knowledge that
it was a very luminous orb, producing a climate similar to that of the
tropics or nearly so. As we entered the interior sphere the sun rose
higher and higher above us, until at last he stood vertically above
our heads at a height of about 3,500 miles. We saw at once what novel
conditions of life might exist under an earth-surrounded sun, casting
everywhere perpendicular shadow, and neither rising nor setting, but
standing high in heaven, the lord of eternal day. We seemed to sail
the bottom of a huge bowl or spherical gulf, surrounded by oceans,
continents, islands, and seas.

A peculiar circumstance, first noticed immediately after arriving at
the centre of the gulf, was that each of us possessed a sense of
physical