ANTARCTIC CONTRASTS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 128, 26 November 1929, Page 9

ANTARCTIC CONTRASTS

NEXT POLAR FLIGHT

USE OF MAPPING CAMERA

United Press Association—By Electric Tele-

graph—Copyright. (By Russell Owen.—Special to "New

York Times.")

(Received 26th November, 9 a.m.)

BAY OF WHALES, 24th Nov.

The fair weather, which lasted a week and made flying to the mountain base possible, ended in a stiff blow. Clouds began to gather last night as the wind shifted, and in the night the wind hauled round to the east, and blew so much drift along the surface that it covered the windows of the houses, so that every one in the administration building overslept himself. Digging out the windows now is a job, for one has to go down nearly ten feet, and near the bottom it is quite a heave to throw snow out of the hole.

The contrasts in the weather here are astonishing. For several days the sun shone out of a cloudless sky with a gentle wind from the south' that kept the air clear all the way to the mountains, and even over the plateau, but the day before yesterday it began to cloud up inland, where the geological party was plugging along with its dog teams, and yesterday the clouds began to form here. The thermometer went up to 18deg. above zero, but last night when the wind shifted, <> the mercury began sliding down rapidly below zero. The weather is always uncertain here, and clears or gets thick as the cold air shifts out from the interior or the warm air blows in from the sea. To-day there seems every prospect of several days' overcast weather and strong winds from the east, the point from which come most of the blizzards that strike "Little America."

PLANS FOB BIG 'PLANE.

The period of waiting, however, has its advantages, as it permits necessary work to be done. On the big 'plane the causes of the heavy gasoline consumption on the recent base-laying flight, which brought about the forced landing, have been found and remedied, and in a flight test yesterday the consumption was found to be normal. Nevertheless, getting the" 'plane over the hump of mountains and back to the base will require skilful handling, because of the fuel load and the added weight of mapping apparatus and its operation and the food and equipment needed for the crew in ease of a forced landing. Altogether it adds more than 6001b to the load.

Byrd's original plans, based on the known performance of the 'plane, provided for a pilot and radio operator besides himself and a load which could be carried to the necessary height to fly over tlie 10,000 ft plateau. The value of the mapping camera became apparent on the aerial survey of the Bockofeller Range last year, and the pictures of the mountains obtained on the flight last week have increased everyone's appreciation of their geographical importance. The camera shows mountains a hundred miles away, and so many peaks were disclosed even on this preliminary flight at an altitude of only 5000 feet that it is evi-' dent that on the Polar flight some remarkable results may be obtained. Enough has already been learned from the aerial film exposed on the baselaying flight to indicate that mountain ranges and lands lie in different positions and run in different directions from what had been' supposed, so that an entirely new conception of the land to the east of the Axel Heilberg Glacier may be gained from a careful study of the mapping photographs made on this flight and on the Polar flight, so Byrd has decided to add to the difficulty of carrying a load over the high mountain range because of the importance of the aerial survey which will be obtained.

GOULD PARTY'S PROGRESS,

Dr. Gould's geological party laid Depot No. 5 in latitude 82deg. 35min which is 270 miles .south of "Little America." The party had a hard slow trip from Depot No. 4, where they picked up an additional load for the mountains. They also received radio messages from the 'plane in flight. On the next flight Byrd plans to drop aerial photographs of the mountains, which will help Gould by determining the method of approach to the mountains for geological data.