CAPT. WILKINS’ EXPEDITION.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 April 1926, Page 1

CAPT. WILKINS’ EXPEDITION.

FLIGHT DESCRIBED. [“Sydney Sun” Cables.] (Received this day at 9.30 a.inA VANCOUVER, April 15. Captain Wilkins, at Fairbanks, describing the flight, said: ‘Driving steadily into a bewildering whiteness where there is no earth, no sky and no horizon, brings a. semi-consciousness that, one must continually light off. There arc (heights that arc beautiful and terrifying in that one hundred miles of flight across the Endicott Range, whose jagged peaks rival tlie Alps, Rockies and Andes, and even portion of the Himalayas. On the lasttrip out we were heavily laden when we encountered fog and tried to rise, hut could not attain an elevation that meant assured safety. At times we were at the top of the billowing, misty mass with the wheels and landing gear in the clouds while the fuselage was cut i,, clear air. It was like sailing through a. breast high mist. A rift in the fog disclosed a high wall directly ahead. The pilot hanked sharply and v.'e skimmed along tlie face of the mountains until we followed a pass into safety. We never saw a bird or other living wild creature crossing the mountains or crossing the tundra, except, some caribou. For hundreds of miles coming and going there was nothing in the sky or the earth except the piano and its shadow on the snow waste.