COMING ARCTIC FLIGHT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 27 March 1926, Page 9

COMING ARCTIC FLIGHT.

AMUNDSEN’S HOPES. DISCOVERING A NEW LAND. LONDON, March 14. Captain Amundsen hopes, during his forthcoming Arctic flight, to stop his airship, drop anchor on the ice, lower men in baskets, and take observations and examine anything interesting. He contrasts such a prospect with his last experience in an aeroplane, when the speed rendered observations valueless. Navigation was mere guesswork. The greatest advantage is that the ice loses the terrors which have ah ways been the bane of polar exploration. . ! “Late May, when I hope to start, should be favourable,’’ said Amundsen. “The Arctic air during the six .summen* months is mostly troubled by zephyrs. Fogs are usually light and low-lying, not compelling an ascent to- excessively cold altitudes. “If we meet trouble, we shall resort to the sleds, and aim for Greenland or Alaska. Six months’ provisions should suffice for any emergency. “The rations,” he says, “will be what I personally have found most sustaining in the Arctic —Pemmican, oa/fcmeal, biscuits and dried milk.” On Amundsen’s last journey the party was reduced to Boz. of food daily, and though- ithey became very thin, they were never hungry. “The expedition’s greatest hopes,” he continued, “are to discover the land we are almost certain exists amidst icefloes which have hitherto defied human penetration. “We hope to be the first to put foot on a territory as isolated as the moon. If we succeed the _ discovery will be of enormous- and commercial importance, providing a short cut across the Arctic.” The expedition’s ship Hobby will leave for King’s Bay (Spitsbergen) in a few days, carrying the Norge’s mooring mast, gas containers, and other stores Amundsen and Ellsworth will join the Norge at King’s Bay m April.