POLAR EXPLORATION.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19841, 31 January 1930, Page 15

POLAR EXPLORATION.

INVESTIGATING ICE GORGES

WORK AT LITTLE AMERICA

[By Ri-ssbli. New York Times Company and »l. Louis "Post-Dispatch"!

(TTNITEP PRESS ASSOCIATION-*Y EJ.ECTBIC ■nSLEGBAPH— COPYRIGHT.)

(Received January 30tli. H.lo p.m.)

BAY OF WHALES, January "29. While waiting for ships some final work is being done in investigating the tremendous chasms and ice gorges, tor they are more than crevasses scmtjiwest of the Bay of Vv hates. I here aie inlets and ice-walled openings m ttie Harrier running west nearly 40 miles.. and probablv caused by the Bamei being forced over submerged land. Captain McKinley, with Doctor Gould (geologist) and Captain Parlui (pilot) flew ever them and photographed them w'th a twenty-inch lens camera. They obtained that show these remarkable formations to be huge canyons, their white floors covered with a jumbled and broken mass of ice. with great fissures running off from them, and their edges fringed with graceful overhanging cornices of snow. There was every evidence of overpowering forces. There are many openings in the bottoms ot these gorges, and to-day a sledging narty wenf out to sound through such holes as they oould reach and obtain records of the depth of water. Balehtm, Strom, Braathen, and Crockett, who took with him a radio set, composed the party. They were to have started yesterday, but a blizzard winch came up the night before and lasted until last night held them in camp. To-day, however, the sky is partly clear with a cool wind from the south.

Ail Eights for Publication rc»«rv<-d throughout the World—Wireless to "Npw iorK Times."]

MORE COAL TO BE OBTAINED

BAY OF WALES, January 2f>.

After a conference by wireless between Bendik Johnson, the ice pilot for the City of New York, and the Eleanor Boiling, Bear-Admiral Bvrd agreed with the skippers of both of those ships to transfer the Eleanor Boiling's coal to the City of New York, and send the Eleanor Boiling back to New Zealand for another cargo. ~ . It is. a long trip from Dnnedm to the edge of the ice pack, and if l^

ships are compelled to wait another 10 days or a fortnight for the ice to move they would use most of the available fuel.

Johnson says the whaling captains agree with him that the ice conditions this year are quite unique. The pack is very heavy from 68 to 70 degrees south," and extends west towards the western shore of the Kalleny Islands, so there is a stretch of 120 miles of ice, heavily packed, that must, break up to some extent before our ships even try to get through. Ail RighU lor Publication i-ese: vod_ tlnougi. out th" World—Wireless to "New York Times. "] SIR DOUGLAS MAWSON'S PROGRESS. (UNITED PKE33 ASSOCIATION—BY ELECTfiIC TELEGRAPH —COPYRIGHT.! CANBERRA, January .30. A wireless message from Sir Douglas Mawson says: "On January 19th the wind increased to a high gale, before which we were driven far to the west. January 20th and 21st were anxious days and we hove-to in an easterly gale. The seas are now moderating. On January 23rd we discovered that we had been driven 150 miles west-south-west in latitude 66.22 degrees, longitude 48.30 east. We passed the tip of a mightv shelf of ice, a tongue, with cliffs upward of 200 feet high, extending south-east to join the land, which receded to the horizon limit. We are now continuing east along the coast. -