BYRD ABOVE THE POLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 838, 5 December 1929, Page 9

BYRD ABOVE THE POLE

VAST, LOFTY PLATEAU DESCRIBED

FIRST AMERICAN THERE By COMMANDER R. E. BYRD Copyrighted, 1928, by the “New York Times” company and the St. Louis “PostDispatch.” All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to the “New York Times.” BAY OF WHALES, Tuesday. That imaginary point, the South Pole, is in the centre of an uplifted plain, hundreds of miles in diameter, a magnificent edifice seemingly built to make more inviolable the tiny spot we were seeking. The plateau seems to be ft-om 7,000 ft to 11,000 ft in height. The character of the plateau surface varied greatly from time to time. We saw' to the left the foot of a magnificent glacier, running down from the mountains, and showing chaotic masses of crevassed ice, shining blue against the white snow. This may have been the “Devil’s Ballroom,” that dangerous area which Amundsen traversed.

ADMIRATION FOR AMUNDSEN Somewhere was the trail that Amundsen had blazed to the South Pole. His trail was now buried far beneath the snow. My admiration for that great explorer, increased tremendously when I saw what he had to contend with. In his honour, and in honour of Balchen and the other Norwegians at Little America, and the whalers, who, with such great generosity have helped us, we carried with us a Norwegian flag. We also carried with us a French flag. We have not forgotten the extraordinary hospitality France showed the transatlantic flyers, nor the friendship demonstrated for America at that time. It was impossible at this time to keep the sun and the bubble in the sextant together long ■ enough to get a dependable sight. Our allimeter showed us to be keeping about the same atmospheric pressure, and we were therefore not changing our altitude very much. The temperature seemed to be falling as wo neared the Pole. The mountains abaft the beam were fading now and clouds, which may have covered unseen mountains, showed on the horizon of the port bow. June was piloting and Balchen came aft to tell me that it was not quite so clear ahead, and that we might find mist near the Pole. BIG MOMENT ARRIVES The wind had caused us to take longer than we had expected, but at last the big moment had come—that imaginary point, the very bottom of the world, was, according to my reckoning, somewhere beneath, and within our view. I attempted to get the altitude of the sun with the sex, tant, but there was far too much movement of the airplane for results. We knew exactly what the altitude of the sun should be, since the altitude of the sun’s centre at any moment at the Pole is equal to the declination of the sun, which at that time was 21 degrees 27 minutes. The sun circles that point without any noticeable change in altitude.

We flew on to the right for five or six miles, then circled and flew left for an equal distance, and followed our original line of flight for five or six miles further. When we reached the place at which we had turned to the right we opened the trapdoor and dropped the American flag, weighted with the stone from Floyd Bennett’s grave. We stood and saluted the spirit of our gallant comrade and our country’s flag.

ALL DIRECTIONS NORTH All directions are north from the Pole. When we passed over the Pole, we had changed our time a whole day. Now we had changed it back again. Wb still had a job to do. The winds were gathering force. In a short time we could see more patches of drifting snow - beneath us. We watched the sun compass and the drift indicator like hawks. We must hit the mountain pass. On and on we went. Time that seemed long before, crawled now. The first mountains to the right, which had been clear on the outward journey, were half-covered with clouds. We aimed our course a few degrees to the right, so as to reach the Barrier more to the eastward than we had left it, to get a better view of Carmen Land, and to obtain survey photographs, geographically of great importance. Suddenly Balchen gave a shout. A little to our left was the pass we had come through only partly cloud-covered, and what we took for the Axel Heiberg Glacier was almost dead ahead. Clouds were beginning to form, and we were just in time. We were very thankful that we did not have to waste precious time and petrol looking for a way through the mountains. Soon we were sliding down the Axel Heiberg Glacier. Tt was very rough; but the plane was light. In another few minutes, June brought her down gracefully on the ice and hard sastrugi at our little mountain base. We put aboard 200 gallons of petrol. In an hour we were ready, and June lifted the “Floyd Bennett” easily from the snow, and headed for the camp. We took off north over the rolling white plain, and it seemed to us that we could see all that we had left behind.