FURTHER SOUTH

Evening Star, Issue 20313, 23 October 1929, Page 8

FURTHER SOUTH

THE BYRD EXPEDITION SUPPORTING PARTY'S SLOW PROGRESS Special to Press Association from the Byrd Expedition by Russell Owen. (Copyright.) BAY OF WHALES, October 21« (Received October 23, at 9.25 a.m.) The supporting party camped sixty* one miles south of Little America last night. Arthur Walden, the leader, reported discouragingly slow progress because of the miserable surface during the first two days on the frail, but since then the conditions have improved and the teams are making better speed. During the last two days they have made seventeen and eighteen miles, which is good for this time of the year with heavy loads. Last Thursday they made only seven miles. The runners were breaking through the crust, and there i\as a continuous overnang of hard snow which must be crushed, and under that was the hard, granular, sand-like snow of the barrier. That snow oven sticks to the skis like glue. At the forty-four-mil© depot, which was put out last year, they took 6001 b of dog food for distribution further south. With this weight they tried hard not to run astray in the “ trap,” as Captain Amundsen called a valley full of, haycocks and crevasses west of the trail, and into which—experienced Polar traveller that he was—he wandered one grey day and nearly cam* to grief. The party could see crevasses dimly near at hand, south-west of theii camp. Next morning the blizzard had passed, and by making a turn to the east they got around the worst part of the “ trap,” although they crossed a small crevasses and passed a number of haycocks—those steep, hollow mounds of snow which always indicate the presence of deep chasms under the surface. They made good progress, however, covering seventeen miles, and last night camped sixty-one miles from Little America, with one bad area behind them. . Their heaviest loads are to the 100mile depot, and if the surface should again become crusty and bad they might have to relay over that part of the route. After the 100-mile depot the sledges will be much lighter.