Grab At Antarctica

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 841, 9 December 1929, Page 9

Grab At Antarctica

AMERICA MAY STAKE CLAIM Eastern Flight By Byrd 35,000 SQUARE MILES OF NEW LAND United P.A.—By Telegraph—Copyright Received 9 a.m. NEW YORK, Sunday. MR. ISAIAH BOWMAN, Director of the American Geographical Society, and one of the principal backers of the Byrd Expedition, stated that the United States, by virtug of Commander Byrd’s latest flight, is in a position to lay claim to 35,000 square miles of Antarctic territory, lying along a hitherto unknown coast of some 250 miles in length. This territory, he stated, lies wholly without the Ross Dependency.

“The eastern limit of the Ross Dependency,” he said, “is the 150th meridian west. Maryland lies to the east of that meridian. On the contrary the Rockefeller Range lies to the west of meridian 150 and within the Ross Dependency. “Since Commander Byrd’s base camp is within the Ross Dependency it is necessary in setting up an independency claim on the part of the United States that there be an independent and continuous connection between the new discoveries and the sea at a point where no question regarding the conflict of claims could enter into the argument.” Mr. Bowman explained Commander Byrd's observation of such a connection and continued: “In so far as any claims to Polar territories are valid, they must rest, not upon the principal of permanent occupation, but upon the subsequent notification of the fact, ‘that is a specific communication to the other Powers.’ “ff we take the view of ‘reasonable possession’ as stated by Richard Olney, Secretary of State, 1895, we shall find that It was well illustrated by British claims to operations in the Antarctic. In order to avoid the consideration of a new discovery as merely continuous by land from the Ross Dependency, it seemed desirable to make an independent tie-up with the coastline ill case the further consideration of discoveries makes it wise for the United States to set up a specific claim.”

NEW RANGE DISCOVERED

IMPORTANCE OF LATEST FLIGHT EXPLORERS LONG BAFFLED By RUSSELL OTVEN Copyrighted, 1928, by the “New York Times” company and the St. Louis “PostDispatch.” All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to the “New York Times.” Reed. 9.5 a.m. BAY OF WHALES, Saturday. Commander Byrd flew back to camp last evening. He has discovered a vast new mountain range, running north and south, beyond King Edward Land. It was mapped with an aerial camera for 150 miles. It is this land which holds in the great ice sheet at the eastern end of the Ross Sea, the ice which explorers have attempted to penetrate since it was first found by Ross in 1840. It extends far to the north, and apparently turns eastward within the range of visibility from the airplane, so that it is probable that this great unknown coast has actually been delineated to its northern boundary. That can be determined after the pictures have been developed. The importance of the discovery geographically can hardly be overemphasised, as this mountain range, with a high plateau behind, seems to

compare with a similar range on the western side of the Ross Sea, and it may be the eastern side of the Great Barrier, in which the Rockefeller Mountains and King Edward Land are part of the archipelago. BYRD DELIGHTED “It is much more than I ever hoped to find,” said Byrd, who was delighted with the success of his flight. “This magnificent range was not expected by me. It lies well within Marie Byrd Land, on the other side of the meridian dividing the Ross Dependency from the land discovered last year, and it runs out of sight toward the south,” The existing charts show that from King Edward Land the ice in the Ross Sea runs in a great curve to the north and west. Sir Janies Clark Ross, that daring pioneer who first forced a way through the pack into the sea which bears his name, and who found the great lee Barrier, ran into that barricade and turned back. Captain Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton tried to make their way along the coast and were baffled by the ice island and the drift ice, which closed about them, and forced them to turn back. Whalers have hovered along the edge of that great ice shelf for years, and wondered what held it there. Byrd himself tried to get up there in the City of New York three times last year and was turned back by fog, storm and the newly-forming ice. He tried to fly there, and was headed off by clouds and snow. FASCINATING MYSTERY It has fascinated many men and has lured Commander Byrd irresistably. Unconquerable by ship it has yielded to an airplane flight. With the promise of ideal flying conditions, it was almost hot and there was brilliant sunshine —Commander Byrd hopped off with Parker, June and Captain McKinley. The Alexandra Mountains were passed, and after penetrating a short distance inland the commander turned north, flying between the 150th and 151st meridians. He was then over a shelf of ice extending out from the shoreline, which was marked by the Barrier wall similar to the usual Barrier cliffs. Between it and the broken pack-ice was a plain of shelf-ice, about fifteen miles wide, dotted with ice islands, their tops broken and crevassed. The ice was thin in places and the water was seeping through. At one place were a lot of seals. It was a mean place over which to fly, but it was the only way to map the coast or Barrier line. The crew of the airplane say the mountains had begun to loom up at Scott’s Nunatak, for the visibility was perfect. It was possible to see for 100 miles. The mountains stretched far to the north, and as they cruised along fast with a following wind they saw head after head from the northeastern horizon. The commander followed them for more than an hour, covering more than 100 miles in that time.