BYRD DISCOVERS NEW MOUNTAINS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18939, 9 December 1929, Page 5

BYRD DISCOVERS NEW MOUNTAINS.

FUES OVER AND MAPS ANTARCTIC LANDS. BY BUSSELL OWEN. Copyrighted, 1928, by the “New York Times ” Company and St Louis Post-Dispatch.” All Rights for Publication Reserved Throughout the World. Wireless to “New York Times.” BAY OF WHALES, December 6. Commander Byrd flew back to camp last night, having discovered a vast new I mountain range running north and | south beyond King Edward VII. Land. I It was mapped with the aerial camera j for a hundred and fifty miles. It is I this land which holds in the great ice I sheet at the eastern end of the Ross Sea, ice which explorers have attempt)ed to penetrate since first found by ' Ross in IS4O. It extends far to the ; north, and apparently turns eastward ■ within the range of visibility from the plane, 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 finding geographically can hardly be over-empha-sised, as this mountain range, with a high plateau behind, seems to compare with the similar range on the western side of the Ross Sea, and may be the eastern side of the Great Barrier, in which the Rockefeller Mountains and King Edward VII. Land are part of the archipelago. Byrd Delighted. “It is much more than I ever hoped to find,” said Commander Byrd, who was delighted with the success of his flight. “I supposed that there was land there, if we could only reach it. But this magnificent range was unexpected. It lies well within Marie Byrd Land, on the other side of the meridian dividing the Ross Sea Dependency from the land discovered last year, and runs out of sight towards the south, where the mountains go. What lies between their southern end and the country to the west is still to be learned. But in themselves they provide much material for speculation, and have added many miles of coastline to the great unknown section of the continent between here and Graham Land.” Previous Attempts. Existing charts show that from King Edward VII. Land the ice in the Ross Sea runs in a great curve to the north and west. Ross, the daring pioneer who first forced his way through the pack into the sea which bears his name, and who found the great ice Barrier, bumped into that barricade and turned back. Scott and Shackleton tried to make their way along the coast, and were baffled by ice islands and drift ice, which closed about them and forced them to turn back. Whalers have hovered along the edge of that great ice sheet 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 new-forming ice. He tried to fly there, and was headed off by clouds and snow. That part of the Antarctic has been one of its most tantalising mysteries. Even its northern boundary was only known approximately. It has fascinated many men, and lured Byrd irresistably. Unconquerable by ship, it has vielded to the aeroplane. The flight itself was as unexpected as its results. With the promise of deal flying conditions it was almost hot. In brilliant sunshine Byrd hopped off with Parker, June and M’Kinley. Alexandra Mountains were passed, and after penetrating a short distance inland the Commander turned north, flying between the 150th and the 151st meridians. He was then over the shelf ice extending out from the shore-line, which was marked by the Barrier wall similar to usual Barrier cliffs. Between it and the broken pack ice was a plain of sheet ice about 15 miles wide, dotted with ice islands, their tops broken and crevassed.

“A Mean Place.” The ice was thin in places, and water was seeping through. At one place there were a lot of seals. “It was a mean place over which to fly, but the mly way to map the coast of the Barier line. I looked down at that and hought, 4 Well, if we go down here we •ust go right on through, like nobody’s business/ ” said Parker. “ The air was mmpy also, and the ’plane was bouncng about in a current caused by the varmth of the sun.”

The mountains had begun to loom ip at Scott’s Nunataks, for visibility was perfect. It was possible to see a hundred miles. The mountains stretched far to the north, and as the ’plane cruised along fast with a following wind, they rose head after head from the north-eastern horizon. The Commander followed them for more than an hour, covering more than a hundred miles in that time. The ’plane was still far out from them, however, and flying parallel to the range, while M’Kinley got the coastline.

Characteristic Mountains. Snow-covered land rose from the Barrier edge towards the mountains, sloping upward in rolling and smooth undulations. The mountains were in long groups, rising from small peaks at each end to towering summits in the centre. Some of them were 10.000 feet, judging by the way they rose above the level of the ’plane, which was then flying nearly a mile high. There were breaks between the groups, so that they appeared like long serrated ridges. Between them were great slopes of ice and snow leading up to the plateau behind and to the east, so that they had that characteristic of all coastal mountains around the Barrier of seeming to hold in the almost limitless snow-cov-ered plateau. There was no doubt that they formed the western coast of Marie Byrd Land. When it seemed advisable to turn toward home, the 'plane was 350 miles north-east of Little America. Far ahead could be seen the northern end of the range, and at some distance out from it what appeared to be a solitary peak or island. Another island also lay on the horizon to the northward. The horizon was then more than 90 miles away. There seemed no doubt that a vast cape was what was held in that astonishing accumulation of ice around which ships have had to find their way to the west when sailing out of the Ross Sea from the Bay of Whales. It is anchored by a line of ice. islands off the coast and grounded. ice masses, which hem in the shelf of ice. From hurried calculations on the re turn it is estimated that the range had been mapped for 150 miles north of the 76th degree of latitude. They run in a general north and south line in about 147 west longitude. A Remarkable Glacier. In the midst of the mountain chain there was a remarkable glacier. “It was the most beautiful glacier I have ever seen,” said Commander Byrd “It was eight miles wide, and perfect! v smooth as it ran up to the plateau above. At the bottom of the glacier and exactly in the centre, was a square stone mass rising like a monolith out of the snowy slope.”

The 'plane flew southward against the wind nearly half-way to King Edward Land, then a shift in the air provided another tail wind which helped them on their way. They flew to a point where the land running east from King Edward Land runs into Marie Byrd Land, and found there a sort of valley leading between the new range and the eastern end of Alexandra Mountains. On the eastern side of this depression was a large open space of water, far in from the sea. Cracks ran out from the sides as if there were a strong current underneath. On the south of the pool the ground rose sharply upwards to an elevation of about 4000 feet. There were several of these pools in the valley, some of them in the lowest part of the depression showing that there was an inlet flowing in there from the sea under the ice. It has started much speculation in camp whether this is the beginning of a theoretical connection between the Ross and the Weddell Seas Only further exploration eastward will clear up this point. The 'plane passed the north of Signal Mountain and over a deeply crevassed sea area just east of Rockefeller Range, which was shown in the photographs taken last year. The wind head ed the 'plane here, and it dropped down to 15 feet above the surface where there was not so much resistance. On reaching camp Parker made a perfect landing.