Byrd’s British Hero

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 611, 13 March 1929, Page 9

Byrd’s British Hero

TRIBUTE TO CAPTAIN SCOTT Great Land Named After Him BY RUSSELL OWEN Copyrighted, 1928, l>y the “Now York Times'* company and the St. Louis “Post-Dispatch.” All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to the “New York Times.'* Received 9.5 a.m. BAY" OF WHALES, Monday. COMMANDER BY'RD named part of the region explored by him after Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the famous explorer who contributed so greatly to our knowledge of this Continent. He rests with his companions on the other side of this Barrier on which we are living.

Scott Land lies between King Edward VII. Land and latitude 8.30 south, and west of the 150th meridian, which is the eastern boundary of the Ross Dependency. This area includes the large mountains discovered by Byrd, and is undoubtedly true land, overlaid with a. cap of ice and snow. It is a great area truly, and worthy of the man whose name it bears.

The limits of King Edward Land have never been defined, inasmuch as the only persons to set foot there before the Byrd Expedition were three members of Captain Roald Amundsen’s Expedition, who made a trip to the Nunataks. The region was discovered and named by Scott on his first voyage in the Discovery, hut he did not, land there, because he did not at that time believe the conditions would permit them to do so. But on the charts, King Edward Land has been recognised as the region near the coast and including the Scott Nunataks, so it seems fitting that his name should be given to the targe area to the south of King Edward Land.

Up to Amundsen’s so-called appearance of land, the beginnings of which were first seen by him, there are many regions on the coast of Antarctica and near each other which bear different names. such as Adelie Land, King George Land, and Oates Land. Byrd is sure, as a result of his flights, that land begins just to the east of the Bay of Whales, whether or not it is under the southern limits of the bay in the form of islands.

WILKINS AT NEW YORK

FULL OF ENTHUSIASM CIVIC WELCOME GIVEN (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Reed. 10 a.m. NEW YORK, Tuesday. The Polar explorer, Sir Hubert Wilkins, arrived aboard the liner Ebro, and was greeted by his fiancee, Miss Suzanne Bennett, who kissed and embraced him. Sir Hubert was filled with enthusiasm over his recent trip. He declared that his air voyage over the

Antarctic was merely a preliminary, the most important results of which were the mapping of a new coastline for part of the Antarctic Continent, the discovery that Graham Land is not part of the Continent, but is an island, and also the location of a spot for an Antarctic meteorological base. Sir Hubert later was escorted to the City Hall by a squad of motor-cycle police, where he was officially welcomed to the city by Mayor James J. Walker.

A silent but. admiring crowd witnessed the ceremony, after which Sir Hubert and his companions proceeded about their private affairs.