IN ANTARCTICA

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1929, Page 5

IN ANTARCTICA

(By Russell Owen—Copyrighted 1929 by the New York Times Company, and St. Louis Post Despatch. All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to New York Times.)

, A FURTHER REPORT

'United Press Association—By Electric

Telegraph.—Copyright.)

(Received this day at 9.40 a.m.) BAY OF WHALES, Nov. 24. Gould’s geological party laid depot No., 5 at latitude 82.35 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 received radio messages from the plane in flight. ! Oil the, next trip Byrd plans to drop aerial photographs of the mountains, wliich will help Gould in determining the method to approach them for geological data. 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 1 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, i Contrasts in weather here are astonishing. It is always uncertain and clears or gets thick as the cold air shifts .out from the .interior, or warm air blows in from the sen. < To-day there seems every prospect of .'several days of. overcast weather and strong winds from the east, the point from which come most of the blizzards that strike Little America. The period of ..waiting, however, has advantages, ns it permits necessary work to be done on the big plane. The causes of the heavy gasolene consumption on the recent flight which brought about the forced landing has been found and remedied, and in a flight test yesterday the consumption was' found to be normal. Nevertheless, getting the plane over . mountains, and hack to , the base will require skilful 5 handling, because of the fuel load and added weight of the mapping apparatus., • -Altogether six hundred .pounds have been added to the, load. Byrd’s original plans, based on. the .known performance of the plane, provided for the pilot ,and radio operator besides himself and, a load which could he carried to the necessary height to fly over the. ten thousand, foot plateau. The value o'f the mapping, camera became apparent on the aerial survey of Rockfeller Range last year, and the pictures of the mountains obtained and the flight last'week have increased everyone’s attention of their geographical importance. It is evident that on the Polar flight some remarkable results may be obtained. Enough has. already been learned from the aerial film exposed on the base laying flight to indicate that the mountain ranges and land lie in; different positions and, run in different directions from, what had been supposed, so. tliqt, an, entirely new eon-, ception of the land to east of Axel Hei berg glacier, may be gained from a care ful study of the mapping photographs. Consequently, Byrd .has decided to add* to the load on, the trip to the Pole • by providing 'for this aspect.