New Britain herald., 1925-08-10
ZINE SCENERY BUT
 NOLANDING PLACE
hacMillan Party Fails to Dis
 cover Suitable Plane Base
MAPS A RE INADEQUATE
Radio Dispatch Tells of Great Fiords
 Covered With Ice and Snow--.Air- plane Base To Be Sought Further
 South.


 Washington. Aug 10 P)-Com- mandcr Donald E. MacMillan in d flight over Elcsmerc island Saturday night was unable 10 find 0 suitable intermediate base for his Arctic ex- petition between Etah. Greenland. the main base and Cape Thomas Hubbard, where it is planned 10 es- tabIish the advance flying base.
 Will Try Again
 The flight was in q direct line to- ward Cape Thomas Hubbard SIt everywhere rugged country and ice were found. Another flight further to tho south will be made in the ef- fort to locate q base.
 Details of the flight were given in radio dispatch 10 the navy depart ment from Lieutenant Commander Byrd of the navy section of the eX- petition. The dispatch said:
 Details of Flight
 IN. A.-3 (The airplane) with Reber as pilot and Commander Byrd navigator pilot and N.A.-2 with Schur pilot Rocheville, mechanic. and Commander Donald MaCMillan passenger, left Etah last night (Aug- ust 8 at 9:10 D. m. Set course 3l7 degrees which with variation of 1O3 degrees gave compass course of 60 degrees for Cannon Fjord in Green land for the purpose of attempting 10 establish a base somewhere on Cannon Fjord 150 miles from Etah and on a direct line with Cape Thomas Hubbard, Axel Heiberg Land.
 Covered With Ice
 Sound (Smith sound) was cov- cred with ice with the exception of few leads of open water where landings might have been made if necessary. Followed these leads to some extent and so did not reach Cape Sabine until 9:40. Noted that steering compass entirely useless, compass very sluggish and bearings taken from plane showed a deviation of 80 degrees westerly. There was not sutfi- cient sun to see the Sandun com pass Altitude 5000 feet.
 Wonderful Lights
 After passing Cape Sabine q spectacle opened to riew. lll the fjords weHa covered with ice and snow and the land around us and beneath us to be nothing but deep valleys and jagged mountains rising abruptly from the fiord and in man cases covered with snow with great gra- cicrs running down to the waters edge. No idea of the extremely rug gcd character of the country can be gotten from the charts or maps. which do not show many of the as some of this terri tory seems 10 be unknown"
 Little Open Water
 There was but very little open water in tn" Fjorls where landings could have been made. Ellesmere continued Its rugged character and it became apparent no base would be found on the land in the direction we were going, Also the presence of ice in FjOrds that run parallel 10 Cannon Fjord indicated that there would he no landing place at the end of our journey.
 At 120 miles from Etah fog be- gan to settle ahead and too thick 10 see through, so it was decided to re- turn 10 Etah. Had to fly at altitude of $500 feet 10 get above low clouds until we reached sight of sound. In dicator showed 80 mile gales blow ing fro mthe north and water in harbor was quite rough when plane landed alongside Peary at five min utes before midnight.
 Herd of WaIrus.
 At mouth of harbor, when M. A. i 3 started to take off q huge herd of walrus came near the plane and ap- peared to get enraged at it, but they were soon left behind, where we took off. A piece of ice weighing about 500 tons was blown by the gale into the harbor last night at 8. m., and ! it drifted between the Peary and the l planes which were anchored 100 ! yards toward the shore from the ! ship. II is necessary 10 keep all 1 night watch on the planes on ac-
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