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Dunstan Times, Issue 3131, 21 August 1922, Page 8

ff Captain Amundsen succeeds in bis nrojected flight across the Polar basin he will add a remarkable aerial achievement to his conquest of the South Pole. The straight-line distance from Cape Barrow, his proposed start-ing-point, to the Pole is ]'27-"i miles. ■■uu\ from the Bole to his ultimate goal ill Cape Columbia -ISS miles, a fetal of 17(50 miles. But as it is very unlikely that be could keep to an exact meridional route, the actual Hying distance will most, certainly be nearer 2000 miles, with no possibility of anv help of any kind in the event of accidents, and only moving icefield for emergency landing places. Exactly how lit- will recognise the North Pole if he reaches it. i- not quite clear as it is marked by no physical feature to distinguish it from Ihe rest of the frozen Arctic, and the refined astronomical observations by which latitude OOdeg N. can be determined are impossible in a moving aeroplane. But if he gets through he will discover what chances I here are of carrying out his projected drift in a vessel across the Polar basin, and that is bis main purpose in living over the top of the earth.