POLAR EXPLORATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20421, 25 November 1929, Page 13

POLAR EXPLORATION.

BYRD MAKES PETROL BASE,

GREAT MOUNTAINS FILMED^

riNE SERIES OF PICTURES, /

(Received November 24, 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 23. By Commander Byrd. Copyrighted 1928 by the New York Times Comparty and the St. Louis Post Dispatch. All rights for publication reserved throughout the world* Wireless to the New York Times.] BAY OF WHALES, Nov. 22,

The day before yesterday our Ford aeroplane established a tiny base almost! within the shadow of the South Pole.! Wo went out a total of 440 miles. Before wo started tho flight I told Dean Smith to deliver mail to the mountains.] We all know that an air-mail pilo"; with' mail aboard will go through when it. can be done.

Dean did a fine job holding tQ • tho indistinct trail made by the dog teams of the geological party. We passed the party 200 miles out and we, also looked down at our comrades 2000 ft.' beneath us making only 10 or 15 miles a day where we were making 100 miles an hour.

It emphasised tho great differenca ! between the old method of polar explora- ! tion by dog team and the new method by; . j aviation. The dog team party, how- j ever, will be able to remain at ' f the J mountains for several weeks whero tha { airplane might be blown away in a storm.) j That is why minute geological investiga- j tions must- bo made by the foot travel- j ler. Even now, however, we have learned j enough to design a machine that we can I anchor to the snow so as to defy the f winds. Chaotic Series of Chasms. ! About midway in the flight we passed j over the territory of crevasses, the region that the supporting party worked | its way through. We could see their, | zigzag path as it wound in and out j among the bottomless crevasses and j dangerous pits. All the more we realised | what a wonderful job this party did in j getting through this area. The chaotic mass of crisscrossing chasms, gigantic 1 ice blocks on end, and fan-shaped cracks, j wide and narrow, stretching for miles < to the east and west, is entirely beyond J iny powers of description. We must let f the mass-mapping camera tell its story. . j Not long after passing the crevassed I area we sighted the great mountains on j tho starboard bow, where is the Beard- j more Glacier which Scott and Shackleton j ascended. McKinley photographed this j range and a new one running near to it I in the same direction. We can definitely, | join up the Axel Heiberg Glacier with tha | Beardmore Glacier. This is a magnificent' f range. |

As we approached the mountains, peak after peak came into view until finally, the whole horizon from south-east to south-west was filled with mountains.:

Never have I seen such nigged moun- i tains or such magnificent scenery—great mountain masses rising from sea level, precipitously, to thousands of feet, peak after peak towering to heights of 10,000, , 12,000 and 15,000 feet. McKinley photographed with his mapping camera dozens of mountain peaks never before seen, and will develop his films so that the world can see what we saw, and- science can study at its leisure and with a microscopa '"r ; these extraordinary glacial phenomena. Perhaps one of the biggest moments of the whole expedition was landing ab the foot of the mountains, for landing away from the bass on" unknown fields is always uncertain and even more «o in polar regions with a heavy load aboafd. Great Bisk in Landing. As far as our aviation mission is con« cerned, and as far as a very great many, other vital things were concerned,. all our eggs were in the aeroplane when ika landing was made. Our all was staked on that landing. It was an nnknown quantity. What a colossal mess it - would have been had we failed. It was one of those risks one must sometimes take in polar regions to win. Smith was given this big responsi< bility of landing on unknown ground, the character of which is not easy to judga from the air. He carried mail to tha mountains. It is these great mountains that make our problem a peculiarly difficult one and prevent a non-stop flight to the Pole from Little America. We can-, not carry a sufficient load of petrol to scale those peaks, reach the Pole and return non-stop. That is why we musti have petrol available at the foot of these mountains, when we become short of fuel on our return.

The photographers took dozens of clear-* cut beautiful pictures of magnificent peaks rising step by step from the Barrier! plain. They aro now being assembled, so that they can be studied.in detail. They, are the first accurate record of this pari" of the Antarctic.

Difficulty in Developing. Preparations to develop the films wera made during'the flight. About 800 gallons of water were needed, but. here water is scarce. Joe Rucker and Jim Feury pub their heads together and evolved & smelter that would melt the snow.

They cut square holes in the sides of two steel petrol drums, placed them on their sides on a framework constructed o£ boxes and an odd pair of steal skis which had belonged to the famous snowmobila. Under this they put a pressure kerosene torch, which gave a roaring flame and terrific heat.

Finally there were 120 photographs showing the Barrier all the way to. the mountains and back to the forced, landing place, and also picture? of the mountains taken from the air and while the aerbplane was on the ground at the mountain base.