ARCTIC FLIGHT

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 110, 9 April 1926, Page 7

ARCTIC FLIGHT

WILKINS EXPEDITION. UNBROKEN ICE STRETCHES. TWO DAYS’ BLIZZARD. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received April 9, 9.25 a.m. NEW YORK, April 8. A message from Fairbanks states that Captain "Wilkins and Lieutenant Eielson flew 150 miles beyond Point Barrow on the Arctic journey before landing at Barrow. No land was sighted, but unbroken stretches of ice wore noted as possible places for alighting. The flight to Barrow last week was made in approximately four hours. The landing was effected in a blizzard, which continued for two days and made matters difficult for tho take off. Cigarettes seemed to be the chief worry of Captain Wilkins and Lieutenant Eielson, as they did not take any with them, expecting to get some from Chareies Brower, a veteran trapper at Barrow. Tho latter’s supply was exhausted. The men were not forced to go without, however, as a woman writer, Miss Wallace, who is wintering at Barrow, came to their rescue.

The flyers arrived back on Wednesday.—Reuter. •

ALASKAN WASTES. FARTHEST NORTH YET. VANCOUVER, April 7. For two days following Captain Wilkins’s tour into tho Arctic, a blizzard swept tho coastline east and west of Barrow, but Monday morning opened clear. Lieutenant Eielson stated that the motor was taxied up and down the icefield, but they were unable to rise owing to tho drifted snow. Esquimaux cleared this and the following day they commenced their flight. Everything went well until they had passed Wiseman, then head winds took them off their course and they were obliged to land at Circle City. In describing their siido down hill from tho crest of Eudacotts towards tho Arctic, Captain Wilkins said that they encountered the most rugged scenerj ever witnessed. Knife-edge and saw-tooth ranges piled one after another for undetermined miles, each serrated horizon more terrible than tho one behind. Finally, they came out into the foothills. Frozen white tundra lay ahead as far as tho aching eye could see.

“We wero flying faster than wo figured and crossed the coastline about fifteen miles east of Barrow and the ice was below us before wo realised it. The results show that we were flying 100 miles hourly. Wo continued to seaward for 75 minutes and it was 2J hours after we passed Barrow that we started to return.”

The utmost position reached to the northward was 125 miles beyond Barrow. Beyond that lie could sco 75 miles over ico hummocks from the seaplane. This is at least 100 miles further than a human being lias ever before penetrated beyond the Alaskan coast.—A. and N.Z. cable.