IN ANTARCTICA

Hokitika Guardian, 9 December 1929, Page 6

IN ANTARCTICA

(By Russell Owen—Copyrighted 1929 by the New York Times Company, and St. Louis Post Dispatch. All rights for publication reserved throughout the world Wireless to New York Times.) GREAT UNKNOWN COAST MAPPED, NEW RANGE OF MOUNTAINS FOUND. [United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.] BAY OF WHALES, December 6. Commander Byrd flew back to camp last night (from Ids first eastern exploration flight into a new area) alter having discovered a vast. new mountain range, running north and south beyond King Edward Land. The new range was mapped with the aerial camera for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. It is this land which holds in the great ice sheet at the eastern end, of the Ross Sea ice, which explorers have attempted to penetrate since it was first found by Ross in.the year 1810. It extends far to the north, and apparently it turns eastward within the range of r visibility from the plane; so that it is probable that this great unknown coast has actually been delineated 'to its northern boundary. That can he determined after the pictures have been developed. A AI.OST IMPORTANT FIND.

The importance of the new finding geographically can hardly he over-em-phasised,. as this mountain range, with the high plateau behind it, seems to compare with a similar range on tne western side of Ross Sea, and it may he the eastern side of the Great Barrier, in which the Rockefeller Menu tains and King Edward Land are part of an arehipelego. BYRD ELATED.

“It is much more than I ever hoped to find,” said Commander Byrd, who was delighted with the success of the flight. “I had supposed that there was land there, if we could only search it ; but this magnificant range was unexpected. It lies well within Marie Byrd Land on the other side of the meridian dividing Ross Sea Dependency from the land discovered last year, and it runs out of sight towards the south, where, the mountains ;o; and what lies between their southern end and the country to the west is still to he learned. But in themselves the mountains provide much material for speculation, and they have added many miles off coast line to the great unknown sector of the continent between here and Grnhnmland, BLOCKED FORMER EXPLORERS The existing, charts show that from a, King Edward Land the ice in the Ross Sea runs in a,great curve to the north and west.

Ross, a daring pioneer, who firstforced his way through the pack ice into the sea which hears his name, and who'found the great ice barrier, humped into that barricade, and he then turned hack. Scott and Shackleton tried to make their way -along the coast, and tney were baffled by the ice islands and the drift, ice which closed about them, and forced them to turn back.

The whalers, also, have hovered along the edge of that great ice sheet for years, and have wondered what held it there.

Commander Byrd himself had tried to get up there in the “City of New York” three times last year, and he was turned back by fog; storm, and new-forming ice. He tried to fly there and he was headed off by clouds and snow. That part olf the Antarctic lias between one of its most tantalising mv s teries for even its northern boundary was only known approximately. It has fascinated many men, and has lured Byrd irresistibly. Unconquerable by ship, it has yielded to the aeroplane. The flight itself was as unexpected as its results. With the promise of ideal flying conditions, it being almost hotin the brilliant sunshine, Byrd hopped olf with Barker, .June, and .McKinley, 'i he Alexandra Mountains were passed, and after penetrating a short distance inland, the Commander turned nortlr, living between the 150th and the 151st meridians. He was then over shelf ice, extending out from the

shore line, which was marked by a barrier wall, similar to the usual barren cliffs. Between it and the broken pack ice, there was a plain of sheet ice-, about fifteen miles wide, which was dotted with ice islands, their tops being broken and crevassed. The ice was thin in places, and water was sweeping through them. At one place there was a lot of seals.

‘lt was a mean place over whkh to fly, but it was the only way to map the coast of the barrier line.- I looked down at that, and I thought, ‘Wei’, if we go down here, we will just go right on through like nobody’s buninoss!’ said Barker. The air was bumpy also, and the plane was bouncing about in the current which was caused by the warmth of the sun.” Mountains bad begun to loom no at Scott’s Nunataks, for the visibility was perfect-. It was possible to see one hundred miles. The mountains stretched far to the north, and as the plane cruised along fast, with .a follnving wind, the range rose up head after head from the north-eastern horizon. The Commander followed them for more than an hour, covering more than one hundred miles in that time. The plane was still far out from them, however, and was flying parallel to the range, while McKinley got the coastline. Snow-covered land rose from the Barrier-edge towards the mountains, sloping upwards in rolling, and smooth undulations. The mountains wore in

long groups, rising from samll peaks at each end up to towering summits in tile centre. Some of them were ten thousand feet in height, judging by the way that they rose above the level of the plane, which was then Hying nearly one mile high. There were breaks between the groups, so that they appeared like long serrated ridges Between them were great slopes, with ice and snow leading up to a plateau behind and to the east, so that they had that characteristic of all coastal mountains around the Barrier of seeming to hold in an almost limitless snowcovered plateau. There was no doubt that they formed the western coast of Marie Byrd Land. AVhen it seemed advisable to turn towards home, the plane was three hundred and iilty miles north-east of “Little America.” Far ahead could be seen the northern end of the range, and at some distance out from it could ho seen what appeared to be a solitary peak, or an island. Another island also lay on Ihe horizon to the northward. The horizon was then more than ninety miles away. '1 here secmeif no doubt that this vast cape was what was held in that astonishing accumulation of ice around which ships have had to find their way to the west when sailing out of Ross Sea from the Bay of Whales. This cape is anchor ed by a line of ice-islands off the coast and grounded ice masses,' which hem in shelf ice.

From hurried calculations on the return it is estimated that the range has been mapped for one hundred and fifty miles north of the seventy-sixth degree of latitude. They run .in a general north and south line, in about 1-17 west longitude. In the midst of the mountain chain there was a remarkable glacier, and ibis, said the Commander, was the “most beautilul glacier that. I have ever seen.” Byrd continued: “It was eight miles wide, and was perfectly smooth as it ran up to the plateau above. At the bottom of the glacier, and exactly in the centre was a square stone mass, rising lige a monolith out of the snowy slope.” The plane flow southward against the wind nearly half way to King Edward Land. Then a shift in the air provided another tail wind, which helped them on their way. They flew to a point where land running east from King Edward Land, runs into Marie Byrd Land, and they found that there is a sort of valley leading between the new range and the eastern end of the Alexandra Mountains. On the eastern side of this depression there was a large open space of water far in from the sea. Cracks ran out from the.,sjd.es as if there were a strong current underneath. On the south of this pool, the ground rose sharply upwards to an elevation of about 4000 feet. There were several of these pools in the valley. Some of them were in the lowest part of the depression, thus showing that there was an inlet flowing in there from the sea under the ice. It has started much speculation in camp as to whether this is the beginning of the theoretical connection between Ross Sea and Wad-

I dell Sea. Only .further exploration eastward will clear up this point. The ; plane passed north of Signal Moun- ; tain, and over a .deeply-crevassed sea | area just east of the Rockefellow I Range, which was shown in a photograph taken last year. The wind . headed the plane here, and the plane ; here dropped down to fifteen feet | above the surface, where there was not so much resistance. i On reaching camp, Parker made a perfect landing.