For anyone who is interested in doing further research on Malta,
a search on google.com of Malta + cave, came up with 14,300
page matches. Malta + cavern found 1,330, Malta +
subterranean found 1,070, Malta + catacombs returned 1,210,
and Malta + tunnels found 2,500 sites. Malta + hypogeum
returned 811, and "Hal Saflieni" had 357 returns. Apparently this
is the correct Maltese spelling and pronunciation of the site
which has been printed elsewhere as "Hal Safini."
--Mike
I have just re-written this stretch of Seven Days North of Tibet in
order to make the reading easier. Nansen definitely experienced
curvature anomalies in terms of latitude as he descended towards. I
think it was Gardner who blamed this on Nansen letting his time piece
run down, but that anomaly was in terms of longitude, and was a
seaparte issue, ocurring at almost the same time, but just after the
puzzling latitude anomaly.
Here is where the article is:
http://skywebsite.com/hollow/arctic/
And here is what I re-wrote:
" Now we touch on the anomaly of curvature again-
Page 288: [ April 6th ] It became more and more of a riddle to me
that we did not make greater progress Northward. I kept on
calculating and adding up our marches later on, but always with the
same result ... we must be far above the 86th parallel. It was
becoming only too clear to me that the ice was moving southward.
Page 291: [ April 14th ] I find that we should yesterday have come
farther South than 86* 53 North; ... I cannot explain it in any other
manner than by the surmise that we have been drifting rapidly
northward, which is very good for the Fram, but less so for us [ on
foot ].
It was between these two log entries that Dr. Nansen and Johansen had
turned back. Here we find that within the space of a few days, Nansen
blames his navegational anomalies on the ice drifting Southward then
Northward. More likely, they were very close to the rim of the
doughnut-like opening into the hollow portion, and the curvature
changes were confusing Dr. Nansen, indicating paucious lateral
movements, rendering his sextant unreliable. There was a Northward
current at the time because the ship Fram, which was still in the
vicinity, had drifted Northwards also. This current would account for
the retarded Southward progress of Dr. Nansen and Johansen. But their
scant Northward/lateral progress prior to the turnback had to have
been due to straddling North and South over the rim doughnut-like
opening.
Lt. Greely ( Later General ) also indicated curvature anomalies, from
several hundred miles away, and to one side of the basin from Nansen;
Nansen was now on the Russian side above Franz Josef Land, and Greely
had been over towards the tip of Greenland and Canada. Lt. Greely's
description, since he had landmarks at his disposition, specifically
smack of forshortening of the horizon, such that spurs of land at the
horizon seemed high out of proportion, and cut off the view beyond.
In our " polar opening " scheme of things, this blocking-of-the-view
would simply be due to an exaggerated bulging and pinching of the
horizon as it angles into the opening. At this point, Greely was near
the tip of Greenland, near the Pole ( a few hundred miles ) and near
the opening. Let us consider his comments:
Culled from The Hollow Earth, page 104:
" The deep interest with which we had hitherto persued our journey
was now greatly intensified. The eye of civilised man had never seen,
or his feet trodden, the ground over which we were traveling. A
strong, ernest desire to press forward at our best speed seized us
all. As we neared each projecting spur of the land ahead, our
eagerness to see what was beyond became so intense at times as to be
painful. Each point we reached brought a new landscape in sight, and
always in advance was a point which cut off a portion of the horizon
and caused a certain disappointment."
If Greely and his companions were entering into the interior of the
Earth, they would certainly find that the Earth has a greater curve
near the poles than at any other place; ... Foreshortening of the
horizen can also be seen in photographs of the North Pole area; the
horizon seems to come up closer than it should.
Admiral Peary made a similar observation: " The black cliffs peer up
over the ice caps." This indicates an exaggerated curvature, sloping
inward towards the North.
Due to polar anomalies in terms of compass ( longitude ) and
curvature ( latitude ), Dr. Nansen and crew had been unable to
precisely calculate their position since the first moment that they
had lodged their ship into the ice. At this point, trekking on foot
down from the Pole, he and Johansen were still quite unsure of their
position thanks to the curvature anomalies just described, and to the
drunken compass readings along the rim of the opening. They remained
unsure for a long time as they headed straight down South on the
Russian side of the Pole. As they descended from near the Pole,
however, the nature of their navigational difficulties took on a
different nature. They became problems in terms of longitude because
they had let their watches run down- not latitude. Their difficulties
in determining their longitude at this point were not anomalous. ( As
an example, by June 14th, Nansen recorded his position to be 57* 40
of longitude but, later on, once he got back to civilisation, he felt
that it had been more like 6* further East of that. ) As he and
Johansen headed South towards Franz Josef Land, Dr. Nansen wasn´t
even sure on which side of the archipelago they would come down
on! "
To: List Members
From: Dharma/Dean