ANTARCTIC DISCOVERIES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 77, 23 December 1937, Page 3

ANTARCTIC DISCOVERIES

LONDON, Nov. 24. The discovery of a strait leading aoutn i'rom Grahamland to a hitlierto unexplored section of the Antarctic continent was described by Mr. A Btephenson as the most sigmficant discovery of the British Granamland Expedition, 1934-37, in an address to the British Enipire League in London this week. Mr. Stephenson, chief surveyoi and ineteorologist with the expedition, was supported by the leader, Mr. J. Rymill. Following the flights of Sir Hubert ' VVilkins an the area, Grahamland had been thought to be an island, he said, but during the expedition 's three years in the Antarctic, it had been proved to be a long peninsula connected with the continent proper, which began | further south than had previously been I thought. This part of Autarctica had never been. explored, because of the difiiculty of Teaching it through the ice-jams of the Weddell Sea or up the precipitous ice walls which barred access from other directions. The expedition had j discovered a long strait giving level going for hundreds of miles and providing a gateway to the vast area to the south. i One of the most iutcresling of the other discoveries was the finding of fossils of both animals and plants on Alexander island.