IN ANTARCTICA

Hokitika Guardian, 19 February 1929, Page 6

IN ANTARCTICA

BARRED BY ICE PACK. ‘,‘By Russell Owen, coprighted, 1929, by New York Times Company and St. Louis Post Dispatch. All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to ‘New York Times.’ ” BAY OF WHALES, Feb. 35.

Commander Byrd returned last night from an attempt to reach King Edward Land in the “City of New York,” and the ship is once more alongside the ice in the Bay. He had hoped that the sea to the north-east-ward would be open, as the result of the recent storm, but the pack ice was so thick that ho was forced to turn back. It seems always to have been difficult to have reached King Edward Land. Scott was nearly cut off when lie first saw and named the Alexander Range of mountains, and Shackleton also found it- almost impossible to penetrate the pack ice in that direction. When Byrd flew over King Edward Land, however, he found the sea open as far as the' eye could observe, and ho hoped that navigation would be nossible.

We left here on -February 13, after the storm, and the Bay was then so choked with ice tliat r the steamer could not enter. It seemed a propitious moment to head north-east so that these precious last days of summer might be utilised. The ship could move at four or five knots without difficulty as an ice pilot in the crow’s nest guided us through between the heavy ice. After steaming all day and most.of the night through scattered pack ice, which was ten feet thick, and sometimes even heavier, the ship reached nearly a solid pack, through which penetration would have been difficult, if not impossible. Byrd did not wish to force his ship into this pack—which blocked the way north, and which had undoubtedly been blown down from the impenetrable regions beyond—because of the danger of getting stuck and being frozen in. He, turned north and steamed along the edge of it for several hours, passing several berg’ and tremendous pieces of pack ice, until it became obvious that it extended far to the north. It was unbroken as far as could be seen from the masthead, and the Commander felt that, even if he found a passage around the end of the pack, and turned in to the east, there might be a danger of its closing around the .ship in no uncertain weather, so he ordered a return.

This pack, moving from the northeast, has been one of the most interesting phenomena observed during our stay here. There sems to be no end. for it is still floating by outside, although it is largely broken up by the time it reaches here; and bergs fire so numerous that it indicates that there ■has been an unusual breakng up of the ice along the coast of King Edward Land, and even further to the north, where -no explorer has ever been able to determine wlmt is the mysterious bond which holds the vast pack in its grip. The most plausible explanation is that there is land u hich has never been seen—land curving towards the north and forming an enormous bight, either mountains or islands. It is one of the most interesting mysteries /of the Antarctic, and one to which Byrd intends to pay much attention.