BYRD'S DISCOVERIES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16914, 1 April 1929, Page 12

BYRD'S DISCOVERIES

| SIR D. MAW SON'S PRAISE SECRETS OF FOSS SEA

\RW YORK. Mar.-; e. Sir Douglas Maws-.c;. m a:, m: mv with the- Yew York llmo. radioed iron; l*ondon or, Ins arrival there, expressed his thanks Jo Commander Bvrd for Isis message t r, goodwill concerning tin- projected Mawson expedition to tin Antmil. The Australian explore: added I that he exported Byrd would solve a mystery that had ahvays baffled jeemgtsis as to what lay between Boss Ben and tiraliam Land Sir Douglas Maw-sou. while c> ngratulating Byrd on it' mam I fie. it: . . hintmo. :- ii discovt ng tin feller Range, wanted him that Ik si : ■ rest on his laurels till next summer. Long flights in the interval were very dangerous, especially if were is treed to land far from Ins base at a time when blirr.nrds were raging. most rx vR o nxo pAin "Me is exploring hy far the most interest mg part -nr., the smaller land mass !v mg Ikww Uvaltam l.and, which Captain "m. Hni'e-t Wilkins from his plant. and tie Bey . Whales, where Command.: Rvd % ■:s base." su’d v 'r D.»aglr.«. "‘I o larger mass of what is kr >•, ■■ r . ■ \i tare’ >* n: men: > a opa-v • ve.ted uir.tean region. oemivM>.i o' . ncient i. ok ’omw: rs • > . ■ ' sea by what geologists eul; *l.l ok nphr: ' Tibs re.ion it's s,»im k ind A ust ■. . am en races th graphic Pole itself 1 have seen the coast land of this countr\- rind explored some distance inland, hut it is not in tcresting. The other section of the continent that lies south o: Cape Horn and as 'far as the Boss Ben is of a different nature. To is is where Commander Byrd has ' eer. flying. Fxeept for the extension south of Capo Horn, little is known of ii. and there lias been much speculation ns to its constitution.

GEOLOQICAL TH BOB! ES, iv One theory hbMs That it ts a begum of scattered islands joined together. and to the plateau mass of Antarctica by a rreat ire sheet which extends ever lands Sand sea alike. The exponents of this I view hold that a sea channel will be ' found to extend under the ice, joinine ! the Weddel Sej with the Toss Sea. 1 do not share that view.and flights which j Commander Bvrd has beer, making tend ;to confirm mv judgment, 1 believe that ! eontiminus land will be found under the ; ice -between Weddell Sea and Ross Sea. | Geologists have long believed this region to he si 'crumpled' formation of rnonni rain ranges, valleys and occasionally vol- . canoes. "We believe it once formed a van of the ‘Pacific Ocean floor «:th intercalations and extensions of igneous rock. It was 'crumpled' over the vast aces ot geological time hi' the push of the Pacific floor against the harder and older rock mass of the other half of the Antarctic Continent. All accounts which have come from Commander Byrd, coupled with what we already know of this country, bear onf these beliefs ot the geologists. Commander Bvrd has found Rockefeller Range and beyond that more mountains. As he 'flies further toward 1 Weddell Sea. he will probably find extinct and active volcanoes, and probably of the same tvpe as those in the ‘folded country right to Graham Land. SECRET OF THE MGIPsTAIKS “Commander Byrd’s flights have made it more likely that Western Antarctica from Weddell Sea to Boss Sea is a mere continuation of the ‘Pacific Bine, which, runs through Now Zealand, New Guinea, the Phillipines, Japan, the Kurile Islands ami the Aleutians So far. we have found it. has characteristics in common with the Booties and the Andes. Copper and gold have been found in the mountains, and, if we could penetrate beneath their icy sheath, we should find still more. Volcanoes have already been found, and s>yrd should find more Rockefeller Range, which he discovered probably coj responds to the Cascade Mountains and the Sierra Nevada* in California. The higher peaks corresponding to the Rockies are further inland Captain Rnold Amundsen crossed them on his dash to the Pole, and told of seeing giant peaks of 19.000 feet it: the distance. If "Commander Byrd obtain* rock -specimens, and can prove they are merely a continuance of the Andes forma* , cm. he will have done a groat deai for the geology of the world,-'