That the sea is deeper than was formerly admitted, is now fully confirmed. We have before alluded to the results obtained by Captain Denham, of H. M. ship Herald, who found bottom at 7,706 fathoms, or about nine English miles. Now, whether that spherical shell, which we have contended to be the true form of the solid earth, be continuous and entire; or, whether it may not be wanting in localities of limited extent where the ocean would be absolutely unfathomable, we know not; but if such be the internal constitution of our globe, there will be, no doubt, many channels of communication between the internal and external ocean, and, as a consequence of the earth's rotation, the axifugal current of the Arctic sea may be supplied by an upward current from the interior of the globe; and this current may have a higher temperature than the surface waters of that sea, and thus the middle portions may, in truth, remain open the whole year round, and be teeming with animal life. According to Captain Penny's observations in 1850, whales and other northern animals existed to the westward, where he saw the open sea stretch out without a bound before him.
It has been a question mooted by some, that Franklin's ships might be overtaken, at an early stage of the voyage, by a storm, and foundered amidst the ice. The theory would give a negative answer to this question. Stiff gales may prevail far to the north when the vortices do not reach so high; but no storm, properly speaking, will be found far beyond their northern limit. After the coming winter (1853), the vortices will gradually penetrate farther and farther to the northward, and the years 1857, 1858, and 1859, will be highly favorable for northern discovery, accompanied, however, with the necessary draw-back of tempestuous weather.
[48] The reader will of course understand these as celestial longitudes, and the latitudes as terrestrial.
Our theory has thus extended itself beyond those limits which we at first had drawn, and our apology must consist in the necessity existing for reconciling the most remarkable phenomena of meteorology to its principles. Yet, after all, what has been said is but an outline of what remains, but this outline is a part of our theory of the weather, and it could not well do without its aid. In some points we may not have correctly interpreted facts; but the facts remain. The numerical elements of the theory may also be in error--we know not; but we think that they are as perfect as the many contingencies on which they depend will permit. What is _certain_ however, is of ample value to compensate for trivial errors. We have hitherto experienced but little courtesy from those intrusted with the keys of knowledge, and cannot consequently anticipate a very lenient verdict. But we now tell them before the world, that they have a duty to perform, and an examination to make, and a decision to come to, "whether these things are so." Our theory may be called an ingenious speculation, but WE CHALLENGE THE SCIENTIFIC TO PROVE IT--NOTHING ELSE. The theory furnishes them with tests of daily occurrence, to prove or to disprove it. By such a trial we are willing to be judged; but let it be conducted in the spirit recommended in the opening address before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to expose all false developments, and to do it generously and without prejudice; and to remember, "that the temple of science belongs to no country or clime. It is the world's temple, and all men are free of its communion. Let its beauty not be marred by writing names upon its walls."[50] The _great_ objection, of friction and resistance of an all-pervading medium, which will be urged against it, we regard as rather the offspring of a bewildered imagination, than of scientific induction. We can discover no such consequences as final ruin to our system through its agency; but even if such were discovered, we may answer, that nature nowhere tells us that her arrangements are eternal; but rather, that decay is stamped with the seal of the Almighty on every created thing. Change may be one of the great laws of matter and motion, and yet matter and motion be indestructible. The earth was called into existence for a specific object, and when that object is accomplished, we are assured that another change awaits her. But when earth, and sun, and planets, are again redissolved into their primitive state, their atoms will still float on the ever-rolling billows of the great ethereal ocean, to be again cast up, on the shore of time, whenever it pleaseth Him to say, "Let there be light."