But in his heart Roland Clewe placed little value upon this discovery.
Before Mr. Gibbs had announced the exact location of the north pole, all
the students of geography had known where it was; before the eyes of the
party on the Dipsey had rested upon the spot pointed out by Mr. Gibbs,
it was well understood that the north pole was either an invisible point
on the surface of ice or an invisible point on the surface of water.
If no possible good could result from a journey such as the Dipsey had
made, no subsequent good of a similar kind could ever be expected; for
the next submarine vessel which attempted a northern journey under the
ice was as likely to remain under the ice as it was to emerge into the
open air; and if any one reached the open sea upon motor sledges, it
would be necessary for them to carry boats with them if they desired so
much as a sight of that weather-vane which, no matter how the wind blew,
always pointed to the south.

It was the Artesian ray which Clewe considered the great achievement of
his life, and to this he intended to devote the remainder of his working
days. It was his object to penetrate deeper and deeper with this ray
into the interior of the earth. He could always provide himself with
telescopes which would show him the limit reached by his photic borer,
and so long as that limit was a transparent disk, illuminated by his
great ray, so long he would believe in the existence of the diamond
centre of the earth. But when the penetrating light reached something
different, then would come the time for a change in his theories.

Discussion and controversy in regard to the discoveries of the Artesian
ray continued, often with great earnestness and heat, in learned
circles, and there were frequent demands upon Clewe to demonstrate the
truth of his descent of fourteen miles below the surface of the earth by
an actual exhibition of the shaft he had made or by the construction of
another.

But to such requests Clewe turned a deaf ear. It would be impossible for
him to open his old shaft. If in any way he could remove the rocks and
soil which now blocked up its upper portion for a distance of half a
mile, it would be impossible to reconstruct any portion which had been
obstructed. The smooth and polished walls of the shaft, which gave Clewe
such assurance of safety from falling fragments, would not exist if the
tunnel were opened.

As to a new shaft--that would require a new automatic she