The Virginian

THE NEW WORLD.

Mr. John Cleves Symmes again comes forward, to urge his eccentric proposition. -It is very amusing, if not very instructive. He seizes on the circumstance that a British ship has lately reached a higher South latitude than Cook or any other navigator had done, and yet was unobstructed by ice. Mr. S sees no reason why Mr. Gray or Mr Girard should not equip a vessel, calculated to explore the Southern route --and in that event, he almost pledges himself to pilot her to a country where the inhabitants are concave antipode to those of the exterior tropical regions. He appears to see the whole matter as plain as the nose on his face,-He describes how this subterranean country may be coasted quite around the concavity, along a circle of 20,000 miles in circumference, and a great part abounding in tropical productions, and the seas so free from dangerous storms, as to be every where navigable by steam boats. He glows with the very idea of establishing our claim, by right of discovery, and extending our commerce and fisheries in immeasurable extent.

We would fain ask Mr. S. whether he be sure that we can safely support the air of those regions. The atmospherical pressure upon the surface of the earth is equal to between 14 and 15 lbs. on every square inch—the higher we rise, it is lighter—and the lower, of course, we sink, it becomes denser. Now, some philosopher has calculated upon this principle, that seven miles above the surface, the air is four times thinner—And the same principle holds true, as you descend below the surface. If the crust, then, of the earth be only seven miles, how will the crew of the new Argonaut be able to withstand the accumulated pressure of the atmosphere in the concave antipode? We should really apprehend, that they might be compressed as flat as a pancake!—How does Mr. S. know, that a new order of beings are not the residents of this new world? creatures, whose organization is adapted to their position !-perhaps Anthropophagi, or men with their heads growing beneath their shoulders ?—It is desirable also to know, by what new luminary this new world is lighted up and warmed—these tropical fruits are matured—whether the sun of this inner world is placed in the very centre—with a thousand other difficulties, which it would be easier to propose than resolve. In a word, can Mr. S. be serious in his belief -or if he be serious, can he on that subject be sane ?

[ Richmond Compiler