Evening star., 1925-05-26

ments that have been published.
Alaska Too Dangerous.
Amundsen. for instance, may have
ttled Tor Alaska, but | don't believe
1t. To do so would have been an
unthinkable risk of the lives of his
shlpmates. He is courageous, but
not foolishly reckless. In the first
place, the nearest point in Alaska
IS approximately 1900 miles from
hlnSs Bay, Spitzbergen. from which
point Amundsen hoped off.
Ihe cruising radius of his planes.
toaued as they were, was only 500
miles, and an adverse wind could
cut this down by 200 or 800 miles.
To come down 200 miles from Alaska
would be very dangerous, as the ice
is Jammed up in such an irregular
mass as to make safe landing prac-
tically impossible
There is one possible way for
Amundsen to have reached Alaska
He could have abandoned one plane
at the North Pole and taken all the
gasoline from it for his other plane.
he could have taken all his personnel
aboard the one plane There would
then be sufficient fuel for about 500
miles cruising radius, with only 200
miles to go from the Pole to Point
5arroW' Alaska. Personally. l doubt
very much that this would be at
tempted.
Then. what are the things that
logically could have happened? We
must base our assumptions only upon
what Amundsen was likely to do.
May Have Lost Course.
l. Amundsen could have lost his
course que 10 the unknown and rap
idly changing variations of the com
pass around the North Pole.
:. one of the planes might have
had a forced landing because of mo-
tor stoppage. and, landing on the ice,
racked up the boat in such a way
srh 1IiaL the plane was unable to rise
rms was just what happened to us
with the NC-1 and NC-3 in the
Navys transatlantic fight. The
NC-4 did not land upon the ocean.
ana this was the first plane to cross
the Atlantic. Then the second
Amundsen plane. landing upon the
Ice or IN an open lead of water. NAV
nave MT an unseen hunk of ice and
also cracked up so that she could
dot rise.
3. Amundsen may have landed in
What ne thought was the vicinity of
the pole to verify his supposed posi-
ton from an astronomical sight of
the sun. as is done at sea to fix a
SHIPS position, and in landing NAV
nave cracked up his machines so
that they could not rise.
q. AmundSen may have discovered
new land and placed his machines in
an open bay for the purpose of ex-
pIoratlon and also to locate astron-
omically the latitude and longitude Of
the polar island. Should this be the
n1ah Nv &c
ploring virgin land. He would take
his time in this case and return after
his unparalleled adventure with a
great tale to tell.
Can Live on Land.
.. Amundsen might have run into
polar SnowStorm that forced a
landing and smashed his machines.
Or fog might have separated the
planes and taken them way off their
course. At any rate. the chances are
10 to | that these intrepid adventures
are somewhere down on the polar ice
within 400 miles of the pole and they
are probably struggling up to the
limit of human endurance to reach
land before their months supply of
food gives out, pulling their sledge of
supplies over the ice and taking to
their canvas boat when they reach
open leads of water. If they are
down near the pole the nearest point
of land would be either Cape Colum-
bia, Grant Land, or Cape Morris Jes-
sup, Hazenland, the two northern
most points of land in the world
about 400 miles from the pole.
The explorers are supplied with
rifles and ammunition and could live
on musk OK and seal should they
reach land. There would be no