People,
Here is a nice one to remember:
A JOURNEY TO THE EARTH'S INTERIOR
by Marshall B, Gardner, pages 258 - 260
BIRDS AND THEIR MIGRATIONS
In an English work entitled "The Arctic World Its Plants, Animals and
Natural Phenomena" we find further corroborative evidence. The author
urges further exploration of the Unknown Region, as he terms it, as
the only means of solving the riddles which it presents and which are
quite unexplainable according to the orthodox theories. He says:
"There are questions connected with the migrations of birds which can
be elucidated only by an exploration of the Unknown Region.
Multitudes which annually visit our shores in the winter and spring
return in summer to far north. This is their regular custom and
obviously would not have become a custom unless it had been found
beneficial Therefore, we may assume that in the zone they frequent,
they find some water which is not always frozen; some land on which
they can rest their weary feet; and an adequate supply of nourishing
food."
THE SAND-PIPER IS A PUZZLE
From Professor Newton we adopt, in connection with this
consideration, a brief account of the movements of one class of
migratory birds-the Knots.
"The knot or sand-piper is something half-way between a snipe and a
plover. It is a very active and graceful bird, with rather long legs,
moderately long wings, and a very short tail. It swims admirably but
is not often seen in the water, preferring to assemble with its
fellows on the sandy sea-shores, where it gropes in the sand for food
or fishes in the rock pools for some crustaceans .... Now, in the
spring the knot seeks our island (England) in immense flocks, and
after remaining on the coasts for about a fortnight, can be traced
proceeding gradually northwards, until finally it takes leave of us.
It has been noticed in Iceland and Greenland, but not to stay; the
summer there would be too rigorous for its liking, and it goes
further and further north. Whither? Where does it build its nest and
hatch its young? We lose all trace of it for some weeks. What becomes
of it?
"Toward the end of summer back it comes to us in larger flocks than
before, and both old birds and young birds remain upon our coasts
until November, or, in mild seasons, even later. Then it wings its
flight to the south, and luxuriates in blue skies and balmy airs
until the following spring, then it resumes the order of its
migration."
Commenting upon these facts, Professor Newton infers that the lands
visited by the knot in the middle of summer are less sterile than
Iceland or Greenland; for certainly it would not pass over these
countries, which are known to be the breeding places for swarms of
water-birds, to resort to regions not so well provided with supplies
of food. The food, however, chiefly depends on the climate. Wherefore
we conclude that beyond the northern tracts already explored lies a
region enjoying in summer a climate more genial than they possess.
This is a very remarkable corroboration of our theory. Here is a well
known bird whose migrations are known in every particular except one-
where does it go when it departs for the north? That has been an
insoluble question, but at any rate a question which suggests that
the far north is not what the scientists have supposed it to be- a
barren waste. And when we add to this testimony the fact that animals
also disappear in that direction in the winter, we begin to see how
certain it is that there is not only a land of mild summer there but
of perpetual summer.