AERIAL EXPLORATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22352, 25 February 1936, Page 15

AERIAL EXPLORATION

WORK IN BRITISH GUIANA NEW ZEALANDER'S EXPERIENCE A Dunedin-born young man, Dr. Gordon Williams, is at present home on furlough after five years abroad. As an official of the British Colonial Office he was one of an aerial survey party sent out to British Guiana in 1933 to map the gold and diamond deposits of the little-known interior. In an interview in Dunedin Dr. Williams said that there is no access into the interior of British Guiana except by way of the huge rivers flowing from the Amazon watershed in a series of falls and rapids. Small boats and crude native canoes, hollowed from tree trunks, are the only available transportation, and journeys of three months' duration are common. His party overcame the difficulty by using a small seaplane, which could land in quiet pools on the rivers, and this means of travel was responsible for opening before them a vista never before beheld by man. On the pioneer flight in November, 19.'M, they passed over the famous Kaieteur Falls, the highest major waterfall in the world, being five times the height of Niagara. On the same tour they observed myriad other falls and land formations previously undiscovered, and among them was a waterfall which, with Royal permission, has since been called Princess Marina Fall, signifying its discovery on her wedding day. While landing the seaplane was often a feat of skill performed with dexterity by their pilot, a former rumrunner from Canada to America, taking off was more difficult. The 3* were accustomed to settling on the broad river above the Kaieteur Falls, from which they took off easily by leaping off the brink where the river falls sheer down several hundred feet. While it was probably risky to do this the first time, since they knew nothing of air pockets or currents, this method of taking off is now used. In places where the expanse of water was too limited for an ordinary takeoff they anchored the tail to trees until the engine was speeding, when a native was signalled to sever the rope. Dried rivers frequently upset landing plans. Four hundred miles inland a fuel base was established, to which the seaplane was flown from time to time.