BYRD’S WINTER VIGIL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 97, 7 April 1934, Page 9

BYRD’S WINTER VIGIL

Will Require Great Endurance NEW YORK, April 5. Commander Gjertsen returned from Now Zealand to-day bringing the first personal information to the Byrd headquaners here of the progress of the expedition prior to his departure with the Jacob Ruppert from Little America. He described the difficulties of unloading supplies at the lee Barrier and aerial explorations that proved that some 200,000 square miles of the area between King Edward VII and Graham’s Land was ice-covered ocean. He said that when lie saw Byrd on ■ February 6, Byrd was in splendid phy. j sical condition. ‘‘lt is just as well, bei cause seven months of isolation in a small hut at the advanced base calls ; for great physical resistance as well as ; undaunted courage, which the Admiral possesses.” Commander Gjertsen is proceeding to his home in Norway for a vacation, and is returning to Little America in the autumn to evacuate the expedition.