NO ANTARCTIC STRAIT

Taranaki Daily News, 27 November 1934, Page 7

NO ANTARCTIC STRAIT

BYRD REVISES OPINION LAND FOUND FOR AMERICA 200,000 SQUARE MILE AREA IMPORTANT FLIGHT MADE By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Rec. 5.5 p.m. Little America, .Nov. 25, Conclusive evidence that Marie Byrd Land runs in an unbroken stretch from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole and that the so-called trans-Antarctic Strait is non-existant is reported by Rear-Admiral R. Byrd, following a dramatic flight over that area which has already been claimed by him for the United States.

To-day he reported to President Roosevelt that new discoveries add approximately 200,000 square miles to American possessions. The flight required six hours, the party returning at 12.10 a.m. on Saturday. They advanced as far as latitude 81.10 south, longitude 140 west, and closed the gap between the 81st. and 82nd. parallels which still remained after the four previous aerial penetrations of this section.

Admiral Byrd freely admitted that today’s finding disproved the preliminary conclusions reached following the flight on November 15 that the continent was divided by a strait. Instead, at a point not far east of the depression which Admiral Byrd thought was the sea level passage, was found a plateau curving to the south that proves such a strait impossible. It is now established, according to Admiral Byrd, that this plateau is an extension of Marie Byrd Land.

Flights made by Mr. Harold June, following his own of November 15, convinced Admiral Byrd that his original conclusions were incorrect. For that reason he has abandoned his decision not to again make flights himself. Admiral Byrd’s flight to-day was made unexpectedly. He set out after Mr. June had returned from a record longdistance Antarctic flight of over 1000 miles.