Zetetic Astronomy, by 'Parallax' (pseud. Samuel Birley
Rowbotham), , at sacred-texts.com IF the earth is a revolving
globe, moving rapidly in an orbit round the sun, with its axes
of revolution inclined to the plane of the ecliptic, as the
Newtonian hypothesis affirms, there may be six months' continued
light alternating with six months' continued darkness, at both
the northern and southern axial or central points. That such is
the case in the northern centre is matter of certainty, but that
it is so in the south there is no positive evidence. A few
irregular statements have been found in the reports of mariners
who have endeavoured to circumnavigate the "antarctic circle,"
which have been seized upon as proofs, but on careful
examination they are found to be neither worthy as evidence nor
pertinent to the subject in dispute. In the appendix to the
narrative of Commander Wilkes, of the United States Navy, the
following words occur: "My time for six weeks was passed on
deck, and having all daylight, I of cours