MORE DISCOVERIES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16838, 29 December 1928, Page 5

MORE DISCOVERIES

THE BYRD EXPEDITION LAND BENEATH BARRIER DISCOVERY INLET EXTENDED (By Russell Owen.) (Copyrighted 1928 by the Now York Times Co., and tho St. Louis Post-Dispatch. All rights for publication reserved, throughout the world.) (By Wireless to the. New York Times.) NEW YORK, Dec. 28. "The size of Discovery Inlot'has been greatly extended as the result of a trip ashore on skiis by Commander Byrd. He found that at a point about 10 miles from the entrance to tho inlet, where it has been supposed that it. ended, it turns south, and forms an inner narrow bay filled with old ice. This inlet is about 10 miles longer than is shown on the maps. It turns to the right and narrows to a width of about a mile. * "•lust at this narrow point on the west side are two large ice hills, resembling ice-covered nuuatuks about 40ft. or 50ft. above the Barrier, and from 15Cft. to 200 ft. above the bay ice. Between them is a narrow .valley running to the southwest. The ice around the hills is fissured into .small cracks which are. filled with snow. Beyond this point the bay opened up and continued for several miles to a point where it narrowed and ended against a large ice boulder, beyond which could he seen a line of crevasses, extending many miles. "It has been believed for some time that there was land under the Harrier at Discovery Inlet, because this bay has retained its formation ever since it was first charted. The presence of hills at the point in the Barrier where it bent south is believed by Commander Byrd to bo a good indication that there is land at this point. Anchoring at the Barrier, an aeroplane flight rwer this region during which a pnotographic map will be made of it, will give accurately its outlines, and probably do much to prove that there is land tinder" the ice near the inlet. It is difficult to explain how otherwise it has retained its peculiar formation.

•'lt is intensely cold on the Barrier, much more so than the bay ice bene.'th, and impossible for travellers who were clad for speed rather than warmth to stand still for more than a few minutes, despite the summer sun. Altogether they covered 35 miles on skis and were ready to turn in when they reached the ship and had had something to eat. Before they returned, the ice to which the ship was moored began to break under a swell from outside the. bay, where a stiff breeze was blowing, and the ice anchors had to be shifted several times.

"When Commander Byrd arrived the ship was being bumped by some vtry large cakes, which were at least oft. thick, so the dog teams were taken aboard, and we put ont to sea again, - heading for the Bay of Whales. Today we are coasting along tho face of the Barrier towards the east, sailing with a light breeze to save coal, and hope to arrive at the bay late to-night."