WINTER AT POLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 55, 7 March 1939, Page 11

WINTER AT POLE

MR. ELLSWORTH’S PLAN LAND CLAIMED FOR U.S.A. [ Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, March 6. Mr. Lincoln Ellsworth, a through passenger by the Monterey, told an interviewer that he plans to be the first permanent resident at one of the earth’s poles. Leaving Dunedin with an expedition for the Antarctic in 1941 he will camp for the entire winter at the South Pole. “I have two statements to make,” Mr. Ellsworth said. “First, I propose to name as ‘American Highland’ the 81,000 square miles of Elizaoeth Land, over which I flew and which was claimed for the United States this year. Second, in January, 1941, I propose to establish a camp at the South Pole, where, with two companions, I propose to winter, making continuous observations of importance in several branches of scientific research pertaining to this interesting spot.” Mr. Ellsworth added that it was his intention to sink a 500-foot shaft at the pole for the purpose of studying the strata of the ice. Thus it would be possible to determine the severity or otherwise of winters at the pole during past years. This would have an important influence upon gauging the effect of conditions at the Pole on meteorological phenomena in the Southern Hemisphere. He will probably use two planes and dig them in at the Pole. He ; will fly from the Bay of Whales, I from which the distance to the Pole is 700 miles. “I felt I should never be finished with exploring in the Antarctic until I had carried out these two ideas which occurred to me on the return voyage from the Antarctic in the Wyatt Earp. There is 100 years of research to be done in every branch of science.”