Evening star., 1925-12-06
PtANES.W|[L MAP
ALASKAN SUMMER
Aerial Photography to Be
Used in Undertaking by Navy
for Geological Survey.

Soulteu III years OF EFFORT. Inc Navy
VIII do the work for the Geological.
Survey, under authorization given by
Secretary Wilbur The mapping will
begin next Spring.
The necessary orders have been is
sued to Admiral c. F. Hughes, com
mander-in- chief of the T. s. Battle
Fleet. Those selected for the work
already Are at their task of preparing
for this expedition, which will be in
direct charge of Lieut.. +. II. Wyatt,
now at the Naval Air Station at San
Diego. The others assigned are Lieut.
w. NJ. Dillon, on duty in the Bureau
OF Aeronautlcs here; Lieut.. NJ. A
Schur. who was a member of the ma
val unit OF the MacMiiian Arctic Ex-
pedltton, who viii be engineering and
maintenance officer, ana Lieut.. l.. w.
Curtin, who will be radio officer.
To Base at Ketcililian.
The planes and two tenders. Gan
net and Kingisher, viii base at Ket-
chikan. Alaska. and the territory to be
mapped VIII be the southeast portion
of what is known as section l. The
section over which the ayiators will
fly extends from the Aleulian Islands
and the Valley OF Ten Thousand
Smokes 70 ketchikan on Revilla gigedo
i'Hl<liA' f'V liilLtS llOlll oL seattle. II
includes about 40 900 square miles of
territory having snow-capped noun
tains. icy rivers, tremendous glaciers
ana great forests. 1t is announced
that II this expedition proves sue
cessful, the work may probably be
continued and areas in northern
Alaska in the vicinity of Point Bar
there is located vast naval oil re-
serve.
-Four planes will be used in this
work. three new Looming amphibians
especially constructed for aerial
photography and observation and
one SDW, type which Lieut. Wyatt
used in his trip of 25,000 miles
through the United States. These
planes were selected. after expert
ments, as the aircraft best suited for
this work.
: 1000 Square Miles an Hour.
Some idea of the rapidity with
which this work may be done is
contained in the statement of the
Navy Department that it is possi-
Die for four planes, flying in a line
0 miles apart and at 100 miles per
hour, to map a strip of country 20
miles wide and 100 miles long, of
Z,o0O square miles in one hour How
ever. it is stated that in actual prac-
tlce areas of this size will not be
mapped in one flight unless unusual
atmospheric conditions exist The
mapping Will be done from an alti-
tude of 1900 feet, and one of the
greatest difficulties the aviators will
nave to encounter will be to avoid
clouds, which will obstruct the area
to be charted.
The description of the area to be
charted is contained in the follow
ing report by the china tological diyi-
sion OF the United States Weather
Bureau:
The territory included in section
NO. / comprises all of southea sterr
Aiaska. Mountainous in the extreme
me iand areas are cut by innumer-
abie tideWater bays sounds. inIets
and fiords, some of which are f1anked
ny huge glaciers descending the
mountain passes. Peaks 1000 feet in
heisht are commonplace, while scores
nave elevations about 5000 and q
number rise to 10000 feet or NOR.
and some of the peaks of the Fair:
weather group to $4,000 feet.
Covered With Forests.
From Kodiak Island eastward the
preclpltous slopes Of the mountains
are for the most part clothed 10
heights Of from 900 to 5000 feet
with luXuriant forests of spruce. hem
lock and some cedar
Composed Of hundreds of islands
ranging in area from less than an
acre to many hundreds Of square
miles. Southeastern Alaska possesses
a variety OF natural scenery unsur-
passed in beauty and grandeur any.
where in the world With sinupus
tidal water courses, foaming mountain
streams springing from glaciers and
other snow deposits; mountain sIopes
vefdant in their lower reaches with
densest vegetation, in their middle
portions carpeted with moss and a
seemingly endless variety Of wild
MOVERS, and their SUBMITS crowned
either with bare and jagged rocks or
with perennial snow, man stands in
awe as he ponderS the grand scale
ON which nature here has wrought
Among the larger islands of the Alex
ander Archipelago, which embraces
about half of southeastern Alaska. are
ChichaEof, Baranof, Admiralty. Reyil
lagfgedo and Prince of Wales, the lat.
ter having a length Of 140 miles and
a, width of 40 miles. The more i'm.
portant tidal watercourses are Port.
land Canal. rs miles in length and
very narrow, along the southeastern
border; Clarence Strait, through which
steamers from the States enter this
part of the Territory: Chatham Strait
and its extension. Lynn Canal form
ieg a remarkably straight north
south waterway 200 miles long from
the ocean to Skagway, the gateway
to the upper Yukon country, and Cross
Sound and ley Straight, forming an
east-west outlet from Chatham Strait
to the CCr1n.
s"The largest fresh water streams in
the section are the Stikine and Taku
Rivers, which have their sources in
British Columbia in the plain to the
eastward of the. Coast Range: which
they cut in d northeast southwest di-
rection.
Scenes of Glaciers.
ga most distinctive. as well as PIC
turesque, feature Of southern Alaska
is it's a;+aciers. of, which there are
scores, if not hundreds. Some of them,
notably Taku, actually reach tide
water and deposit in an arm of the
sea huge ma SseS Cf the clearest ice.
resplendent III all the colors of the
spectrum. Taku Glacier is but a few
miles from the steamer Il ack of the
famous inside passage, and is acces-
sible to view from the largest ocean
steamers that ply Alaskan waters.
! "While nearly all Of the glaciers are
type is exemplified by the Great Mala-
spina Glacier, a vast sheet of snow
and ice extending westward from
Yakutat Bay some 20 miles on the |
seaward slope of the ST. Elias Range. |
The western portion of the section
embraces the Prince William Sound |
region, kenai Peninsula, Kodiak Is.
land and Pacific slope of tie Alaska |
Range to the extremity of the Alaska |
Peninsula. Conspicuous in this range |
are a number Of high volcanic peaks, |
the northernmoSt of which Mount |