IN THE ANTARCTIC

Evening Star, Issue 20062, 31 December 1928, Page 5

IN THE ANTARCTIC

BYRD'S NARRATIVE FEATURES OF DISCOVERY INLET [Special to Press Association.] [Coi’VRIGUT. j NEW YORK, December 20*. Commander Byrd states: “ (Jur visit to Discovery Harbour appeared worth while irom a geographical standpoint. We reached the great ice barrier about 177.40 longitude, 70 miles west of the entrance of Discovery Harbour. As we approached the barrier wo could see on the starboard two places where the barrier sloped down to the water’s edge. These were about 100yds wide. This phenomenon was interesting, as the barrier generally rises more or less perpendicularly Irom the water’s edge 00ft,or 40ft to 160 ft in altitude. “Though this is midsummer down here, we found Discovery Harbour filled with what we cail bay ice for threequarters of its length. We have found that this beautiful ice-locked harbour is not accurately charted, but it may be that, there has been some change in its contour since the last explorer reported it. Strom, Balchen, Bruthen, R.etcrsen, and 1 proceeded on skis eastward of the head of the harbour to select a landing field, as wo hope later to chart Discovery Harbour with one of our automatic mapping cameras. We have found that instead of running east and west, as shown by charts, there is a general curve from the eastward towards the south, so that at the end of the harbour, where the lines of the iee barrier meet, its direction runs nearer to north and south than it does to east and west. At a point about threequarters of the distance between the ship and the end of the harbour the barrier sloped gently down to the bay ice so that we were able to climb into the barrier, which wo ascended 150 ft, and still we had not reached the top. At this point Strom, Balchen, and Brathen proceeded to investigated some snow peaks we had seen lying to the south-east near the curve of the harbour. There turned out to be several of these peaks with valleys between, and we decided that, though they are snow covered, land lies'nnder them, and that this is part of some land that keeps intact this extraordinary harbour fashioaeci Jft j&g-ice barricrj

“ At the end of the harbour the two barrier walls do not meet because of a small channel extending to the southeast. Dr Richovd. the Norwegian whaler, told me he had followed this crack, and that it curved around, to the sea. This shows that that part of tne barrier to the northward .which forms part of Discovery Harbour is an island. As there is a strong easterly current running along here and under the barrier it indicates that this icc island is resting somewhere "bn land. This, 1 believe, is of some interest to. geographers, as there is a great deal of discussion whether or not the ice barrier or parts of the barrier rest on land. We have been taking soundings regularly, and the lowest depth of water we have so far reached at or near the barrier is 945 fathoms. Later, after mapping Discovery Harbour from the air and taking more soundings we hope to be able to show conclusively that a considerable part of the barrier about the harbour rests on land. We have found other errors in the chart. The depthfinder which wo took so much trouble and expense to put on the ship lias proved well worth while, as wo can get accurate soundings without stopping the ship by getting from the bottom of the ocean the time of return of the echo of a sound we make with electricity, , “ We have reached the barrier some da vs earlier than, any other explorer, and are getting interesting data on pack ice and bay icc. We passed two ice packs in Ross Sea, in, addition to. the one we had such a difficult time in netting through, but wo were fortunately able to get around them to the westward without being put much off our course.”—Australian Press Association.