DOES CARMENLAND EXIST?

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1929, Page 13

DOES CARMENLAND EXIST?

COMMANDER BYRD’S DOUBTS

NOT SIGHTED ON HIS FLIGHTS.

OBSERVATIONS OF AMUNDSEN. (Copyright —From Russel Owen.) Rec. 11.40 p.m. Bay of Whales, Dec. 21. Carmenland, which Amundsen saw to the east of his route to the Pole, apparently does not exist. Commander Byrd came to this conclusion on his first baselaying flight, when he flew at an altitude which enabled him to see far over what should have been Carmenland, and later, on the Polar flight, no land appeared in this direction except a chain of mountains running to the south-east. Neither did the photographs show Carmenland.

This confusion has now been verified by Dr. Gould, leader of the geological party, who has travelled 110 miles east of the Axel Heiberg Glacier and penetrated into Mary Byrd Land well beyond the 150th meridian. “I wish to emphasise most emphatically that this is in no sense a reflection upon Amundsen’s observation, as his view from the ground must necessarily be very limited and somewhat uncertain on account, of bad visibility, mirages and the enormous pressure ridges that are deceptive,” Dr. Gould’s messages last night to Byrd said.