THE ANTARCTIC

Southland Times, Issue 20675, 22 December 1928, Page 7

THE ANTARCTIC

SIR G. H. WILKINS’S EXPEDITION. FLIGHT OVER GRAHAM LAND. London, December 20. Sir G. H. Wilkins, in a copyright message, states: Graham Land is separated from the great Polar Continent by an icefilled channel. A question which had puzzled geographers for ages was solved to-day. Flight in the monoplane beyond the volcanic mountains in Graham Land, enabling us to see 650 miles south over the Antarctic Continent, proved conclusively that the range does not extend uninterruptedly. It has previously been the belief of science that the mountains in Graham Land extended towards the Pole and perhaps beyond. We disproved that today and we al<o gained an important sight of the geographical formation of a little known land of ice. A runway of half a mile had to cleared through the snow and the take-off was very difficult.” —Australian Press Association. IMPORTANCE OF DISCOVERY. AMERICAN SCIENTISTS ENTHUSIASTIC. (Rec. 8.35 p.m.) New York, December 20. Noted explorers and scientists are unanimous in their praise of Sir G. H. Wilkins’s Antarctic flight. Dr Constantine Dumbrava, the Rumanian explorer, said: “His flight was magnificent, thrilling. I will not be surprised if he will claim the honour of being the first to correct the vague charts of the Antarctic Sea. He may even go further and be the first to fly over the South Pole.” Mr Anthony Fiala said: “What he did by plane in less than half a day would take months by dog team. He showed real skill and understanding.” Professor Charles Bearke, of Columbia University, the noted geologist who accompanied an expedition into Mongolia in 1925, said: “He has been able to do something we all wanted to see done ever since the Amundsen, Shackleton and Scott expeditions.” Officials of the National Geographic Society state that the significance of Sir G. H. Wilkins’s discovery may be that much of what is imagined to be continuous land around the South Pole is in reality broken up into islands or at least that a string of such Islands border the continent proper. Mr David White, secretary of the National Academy of Sciences, said: “Sir G. H. Wilkins’s findings stimulate hope for the discovery of new and important geologic features, including fossil-bearing rock formations that may add greatly to our store of knowledge, not only of climatic conditions very different from those now prevailing that formerly characterized these regions, but also the migration of land plants and land animals between Africa, South America and Australia by Antarctic land route during a former geologic period.”—Australian Press Association.