WILKINS IN THE AIR

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 544, 22 December 1928, Page 9

WILKINS IN THE AIR

Graham’s Land Not a Part of the Great Polar Continent UNCHARTED ISLANDS (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) ( United Service) Eecd. 9.5 a.m. LONDON, Friday. THE most outstanding result of Sir Hubert Wilkins’s flight over Graham’s Land is the discovery that this land is separated from the Great Polar Continent by an ice-filled channel.

In a copyright message from his base at Deception Island, Sir Hubert says: Our flight of 1,200 miles over hitherto unknown territory has resulted in the discovery of six previously uncharted islands which is the second outstanding result of a flight enabling us to look 600 miles south across the Antarctic wastes over a region that human eyes have probably not previously seen. The regions will be mapped when we have had an opportunity of going over the data we have collected. Our hazardous nine-hour spin above Graham’s Land’s icy ranges on a perfect morning only came after weeks of waiting, effort, and a series of setbacks. By 9.20 we were already over Graham’s Land viewing the new territory. The members of Nordenschold’s expedition followed afoot the ice shelf for 300 miles south of Graham’s Land’s northern tip, but their vision was restricted. From our monoplane, on a sparkling clear day at ah altitude Of B,oooft and a speed of 120 miles an hour, we reconnoitred both sides of what had been considered a peninsula. Now we know it to be a series of islands, or at least mountains separated by level ice barriers of unknown thickness. Our course was a little west of south and it revealed smaller mountainous jagged islands. Both sides of the coast of Graham’s Land are indented with deep fiords and bays. It is topped with a table-land, the level of the ice shelf almost exactly coinciding. The Antarctic circle divides Graham’s Land opposite its most easterly point. Fifty miles south of Weather Island is a larger uncharted island. The whole area of Graham’s Land contains triangular-shaped mountains. There are two conspicuous peaks in north and south, and four glaciers, frightfully criss-crossed, flow to the bay opposite Sallieres, where the mountains are high and rugged, but near latitude 70 the range lessens until it is smothered by ice shelves and snow slopes. Beyond the ice cliff bordering the Weddell Sea is an unbroken snow slope stretching southward as far as the eye can see. It probably continues to the Polar plateau where Captain Scott and Captain Amundsen planted their flags at the Pole in 1913. It also holds secrets that we, owing to an abnormal season and lack of suitable snowlopes at the base, could not this trip, with our limited petrol, hope to solve. EXPLORERS DISAPPOINTED We had been flying South for five hours 25 minutes in calm air. at 120 miles an hour. Allowing for the climb

and deviation, we had gone at least 600 miles when we reluctantly turned northward. We had settled perhaps the most interesting of our problems; but we were gloomy, depressed, and disappointed because we had insufficient petrol to carry us to the Ross Sea, enabling completion of the job. After turning, we saw clearly what we had merely casually noticed a few hours before. Clouds were developing west of Grahams Land, and half-way back to Deception Island. We must hurry to avoid them. Eielson opened the throttle wide, and the plane, with her reduced load, went at full speed back to the base.

MAGNIFICENT FLIGHT PRAISE FROM SCIENTISTS SIGNIFICANT DISCOVERY (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) NEW YORK, Friday. “Wilkins’s findings indicate the exposure of a bed of rock and stimulate hope for the discovery of new and important geological features,” says Mr. David White, secretary of the National Academy of Sciences. “These features may include fossilbearing rock formations that may add greatly to our knowledge, not only of climatic conditions very different from those now prevailing, and that formerly characterised these regions, but also of the migrations of land plants and land animals between Africa, South America and Australia by the Antarctic land route during a former geological period.”

Noted explorers and scientists are unanimous in their praise of Wilkins’s Antarctic flight. Dr. Constantin Dumbrava. the Rumanian explorer, said: “His flight was magnificent and thrilling. I would not be surprised if he should be able to claim the honour of being the first to correct the vague charts of the Antarctic Sea. He may even go further and be the first to fly over the South Pole.”

SKILL AND UNDERSTANDING The American explorer, Mr. Anthony Fiala, said: “What he did by plane in less than half a day would take months to do by means of a dog team. He showed real skill and understanding.” Professor Charles Bearkey, of Columbia University, the noted geologist who accompanied Dr. Andrews into Mongolia in his search for fossil remains in 1925, said: “Wilkins has been able to do something we all wanted to see done ever since the Amundsen, Shackleton and Scott expeditions.” Officials of the National Geographic Society pointed out that the significance of Wilkins’s discovery might be that much of what is imagined to be continuous land around the South Pole is m reality broken up into islands, or, at least, that strings of such islands border the continent proper. BYRD HALTED IN ICE SNOWSTORMS AND WIND (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) NEW YORK, Friday. The following message has been received by wireless from Commander Richard Byrd’s ship, City of New York, dated to-day:— For two days we have made little progress through the pack, owing to the thick ice. Snowstorms at times made it impossible to see the leads ahead. A heavy wind blew last night, and the barometer was down to 28.50. Sheltered as we were it nearly stopped us for a time, and we lay snugly in a small pond surrounded by ice. Our sights to-day indicated that in the last two days, when it was difficult to get observations, we may have worked farther to the east than we desired. GOOD COAL SUPPLY The coal has been shifted from the deck below to-day, and now we have only a few tons left in the bags. These will also go below in a few days. It is a great comfort to know we have such a good supply of coal. We have been much amused by the penguins, which come to the edge of the ice to watch us. We have also passed many seals, and then a killer whale came alongside and disappeared under a floe. The abundance of life ia these icefields is remarkable.