John Martin Leahy

“ For the atmospheric density at that height would be only one billionth of. what it is at the earth 's surface.
"And what is the real density there?"
"No man knows or can know," replied Rhodes, "until he goes up there to see. But meteors, rendered incandescent by the resistance they, encounter, show that a state of things exists at that high altitude very different from the one that would be found there if our formulae were correct and our theories were valid. And so, I have no doubt, we shall find it down in Drome. ”

“ I said. "As we descend, it will be-come denser and denser, until at last we shall be able to use these ice-picks on it."
Rhodes, who was removing his creepers, laughed.
"We will have to make a vertical descent of three and one-half miles below the level of the sea—a vertical descent of near five miles from this spot where we stand, Bill—before we reach a pressure of even two atmospheres."
"The density then increases rapidly, doesn't it?"
"Oh, yes. Three and a half miles more, and we are under a pressure of four atmospheres, or about sixty pounds to the square inch. ”

“ He smiled a queer, wan smile.
"Whether we are fated, also, to re-veal it to the" world, our world—well, quién sabe?" said Milton Rhodes.
"Then," I remarked, my fingers busy removing my ice-creepers, "what we read about the state of things in the interior of the earth—the temperature, the pressure, the density—then all that is pure theory?"
"Of course. How could it be any-thing else? All theory, save, that is, the mean density of the, earth. And that mean density gives us something to think about, for it is just a little more than twice that, of the surface materials. ”

“ If the densities of the atmosphere decrease in a geometrical as the distances from sea-level increase in an arithmetical ratio, then, at a distance of only one hundred miles up, we should have virtually a perfect vacuum. ”