The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in corporated the West Coast Times FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1932. LAND OF MYSTERY .

Hokitika Guardian, 22 January 1932, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in corporated the West Coast Times FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1932. LAND OF MYSTERY .

When Rear-Admiral R. E. Byrd returned from the Antarctic nearly two years ago he admitted to his friends his complete fascination by the South Polar regions, and, although loaded with worry and a heavy burden of debt, his resolve was to return as soon as possible to those ice-bound regions. However, his announcement in New York, comes as a surprise, as when he left New Zealand his intention wan to make his next expedition to the westward of the Ross Sea. That would have necessitated his making Cape Town his last land base. Tiie Queen Maude Range is a mass of enormous mountains buttressing the polar plateau, and it was over thin hump and to the westward of the Axel Heidberg glacier that ne made his famous South Pole Might :in December, ~ 1929. On the Might to the eastward from the Bay of Whales, his base on tire edge of the Boss Sea and previously Amundsen’s base in 1912, Byrd discovered a small cliain of mountains running from the Queen Maude range to' the east. Before Byrd went to the Antarctic the east was a land of mystery. Beyond Nanatuck, 200 miles away, which was first reached in 1902, no one had gone, except three members of Amundsen’s expedition, who fought their way to a lonely spur in 1911, a littfe distance beyond Nana tuck. Byrd travelled by ’plane, but an approaching storm drove him hack and the mist closed once again over the mysteries of that great area. Only ten more minutes’ flying would have enabled the American to discover whether or not King Edward Land was an island cm off from the land to the eastward, or even a peninsula. Byrd was convinced that there was unclaimed land to the east of the loOfch. meridian, the eastern boundary of the Ross Dependency, which is claimed by Great Britain, From there directly beloiv to Graham Land and directly below South America an enormous land is open to exploration, Should Byrd decide to enter this territory from the Weddell Sen, which is extremely unlikely, his last base in civilisation would be either South Shetland Island or Cape Town, but his most probable route will make New Zealand his jumpingoff place. He will enter the Antarctic at the Bay of Whales and make for his base at the foot of the Queen Maude Mountains and from there lie will travel over a known route. Byrd has already said; that the Queen Maude Mountains are one of the most important places left in the world to investigate geologically. Before he left New Zealand lie was troubled financially, and it is not generally known that the City of New York, his famous ship, was held up at Tahiti for eight days till friends in America came to the explorer’s assistance to buy coal. Byrd, however, assured his Dominion friends that he would be able to balance bis budget. “T will turn out a plus man,” he always said