The sun., 1919-02-09
Will Use Airplanes
to Establish Base
on Cape Columbia,
and Thence Start
for Oh elyuskin,
Siberia, via Earth s
Axis, All in Six
Polar Summer
Weeks
By HARRY ESTY BOUNCE.
.APT. BOB BARTLETT is go

smile at the positive statement.
1t is his own. When Capt Bartlett
announces that he's going to do any
thing you will, If you know him, put
your money on that thing being done.
The late Ebert Hubbard wrote a
sermon entitled "A Message to Garcia"
Its text was the famous exploit OF
A. 8. Rowan in Cuba, and its precept,
deliver the goods. That Rowan had done.
He was held up to youth as n model.
But in Newfoundland, where Capt
livery OF the goods. across whatever
obstacle, is the rule. They do not cele-
brate one of them who does 1t. They
wouldn't know what to make Of one
who failed. :
The captain himself unaffectedly-
Observation-Disclosures from praise
as the devil from holy water. II you
want to make him uncomfortable and
silent when you meet hin;. ..imire him
aloud; tell him how good he Is.
This. then, is not praise. 1t is cold,
Arctic fact. on his record (Which will
be outlined in a minute) that he in his
forty odd years has overcome more
,daunting obstacles to deliver more sig
nificant goods than any other circum-
polar seaman. In short, when the cap
tain says he Is going TO fly across the
pole, he is; short Of some mischance
now unforeseen and inconceivaole.
Should 1t happen to be trouble with
his airplanes his own resolution will
mean even more than his mechani-
clans skill in the effort to right the
trouble and go on.
start From Cape Columbia.
He means to take of next June from
Cape Columbia. Peary's last land base.
.;norther than northernmost Greenland.
lie will fly to the pole, gather data
there and fly on, nearly straight across
TO Cape Chelyuskin on the Siberian
shore. lie WAS ready to do 1t two
years ago. but then the requisite
'sinews" weren't forthcoming. Now to
all appearances they are.
:. But the pole flight. the most spec
,tacular feature Of the captains plans.
is really no more than an incident of
tho project before his purposed ex-
petition. What interests him, and with
him the scientists and engineers and
the public spirited laymen who know
and back him, is the exploration of q
million uncharted square miles OF the
earth's surface. Did you realize that
pnly one-seventh OF II is accurately
mapped. and that another seventh. in
GLIDING this million square miles OF
the Arctic, isn't mapped at all?
Capt. Bartlett will use an I'M
proved wooden drift ship Of the type
of Nansen's Fran and Peary's Roose-
welt (the Karluk was OF a different
model, vulnerable 10 ,ce), as the
mother ship of his airplanes and bal
looms. He will have six weeks Of
tho mild polar summer for his pre-
liminary work. including the cross pole
flight. The unknown Arctic's boun-
daries roughly form n stupendous tri-
angle. Its angles arc Capes Column
bia and Chelyuskin and Wrangel ISL
snds northeast OF the .Dering tip OF
Asia. Only Peary, dashing to the pole
ana back, has penetrated this triangle
to speak Of. and the pole and Peary's
route are both in its Columbia Chely-
uskin side. Stefansson's party with
tho i'll fated Karluk nibbled just in
side the Columbia Wrangel line. The
rest is virgin.
Makes His Bow at Etah.
Bartlett. will set to work from Etah,
Greenland. Instead of waiting for the
summer to open q passage for his ship
TO Cape Columbia he proposes TO get
there pronto with his secondary air
planes, which are to carry the mate
rial for his airplane base on the cape.
Tie will then be ready to start with
his big plane for the pole and be-
yond. and he means to have a second
base at Chelyuskin--its establishment
being the solid reason for the cross
polar flight, and meanwhile TO have n
third established on wrangel.
From these three 'his own party and
tho auxiliaries will command the I'M
known triangle. They intend to put in
a solid year Of exploratory work at
:east.
1t was the unknown triangle on
which Stefansson, with Bartlett for cap
tain OF his Karluk, had designs. He
rather expected to find a new Arctic
continent. something in the nature Of
another and remoter Greenland Capt
Bob Is without such expectation
Islands, he says. are the largest new
landfalls he figures on. He hopes TO
map them, but especially TO get the
ocean bottom sounded and mapped.
and, above all. sampled with drcdges.
IL holds riches OF flora and fauna for
the biologists, he says. His parties will
gather specimens.
or the details OF his equipment he is
telling very little Just now for general
publication. For instance. he does not
care to say what make OF planes he
will use, or what type, dimensions,
speed and freight lift his principal
one is to be and have. This Is because
his project Is internationally known
and rival explorers and airmsn and
aviation societies plan to try to beat
him and America to 1t. Let them. he
says, and good luck to them. and may
tho best expedition win. But he means
10 win himself!
I've noticed in my experience that
the fellow who wrote those lines about
the owl had 1t right. You know
"A wise old owl sat on a tree.
The ess he said the more he saw
The more he saw the more he knew
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