IN COLD REGIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 22 December 1933, Page 5

IN COLD REGIONS

JACOB RUPPERT

800 ICEBERGS SEEN IN A DAY

(Special to Dress (Association —From

Byrd Expedition)

At noon to-day, the .Jacob Ruppert was barqly one day’s steaming from the edge of the unknown waters encircling the Pacific quadrant of the Antarctic. The course is still southeast. Apparently we are getting into the greatest iceberg-producing area in the world. Since one first sighted this morning, over eight hundred have come within vision. A “fleet” of a score or more icebergs exactly like ships under way, are strung across the vessel’s path, the nearest- being less than three miles distant. The sheeil sides of the largest berg are close to 250 feet above the water. The sea is strewn with gently-rocking ice debris, through which the Jacob Ruppert is warily feeling her way. Admiral Byrd and other Antarctic veterans said they had never seen such quantities of icebergs. Byrd remarked: “Only an undulating and extensive barrier coast could produce bergs in such large numbers. Somewhere hereabouts is a harrier, which may be considerably larger than the Great Ross Ice Barrier.”

Byrd’s present objective is a point in the South Pacific where the 150th meridian cuts the Antarctic circle. From there he hopes to work the vessel past, the recorded tracks of Captain Cook in 1773, and then to explore two thousand miles of undiscovered coastline to the right and left of the position. If ice pack storms prevent navigation, an aeroplane flight over the area might be attempted.'