Arizona state miner., 1925-09-12
an
Unexplored Land

'"The expedition has already shown"
Captain Stevens went on, that a
white man can stand the same expos
ure in the tropics as the Indians when
proper medical precautions are taken.
Charles Bull, a former Harvard ath-
lete and classmate of Doctor Rice,
Travelled alone, except for an Indian
crew, in a canoe ahead of the main
body of the expedition for 700 miles.
Naked as the Indians himself, he got
to be nearly the same color as they,
but at last reports he was standing
the exposure to the tropical sun and
rain in fine shape
almost all the members of the eff
peditiOn had tropical fever. All re-
covered except Doctor KOch-Grunberg,
the German explorer who died. Hin
ton suffered from the ordinary type
of malaria, which is chronic and which
bothered him all the time he was fly
ing
"Great credit is due to Hinton for
plotting our seaplane in and out of
many difficult situations during the
ia hours we were in the air between
ManaOs and the headWaters of the
Parma, especially in view of his re-
current attacks of fever. We had to
fly at more than 5000 feet because of
the heat.
Used Plane for Scouting.
1--WE used the plane as scout for the
main expedition, sketching in the main
streams and many tributaries, and for
photography. The plane was of Amer
ican make and stood nine months con-
stant exposure to tropical sun without
shelter, and with the hull immersed in
water a great part of the time.
Bull followed US to establish gaso-
line stations. After making and photo
graphing a certain stretch of river we
would fly back with the pictures, which
would be developed in order to guide
Doctor Rice over that part Of his jour
ney."
Captain Stevens said he thought the
outstanding feature Of the expedition
was it's success in wireless transmits
sion from the jungle.
although working with portable ap-
paratus and in the heart of the worlds
greatest forest" he said, "a record was
made in exchanging the first wireless
messages TO pass directly from South
America to England and back again.
LOng-wave communication was carried
on between the expedition and Manaos
and shOrt-wave communication to
many parts of the world, including
New York, San Francisco, London. Rio
JaneirO and New Zealand. The sig
nails were reported as very strong, both
in New York and London. Part of the
apparatus was designed and assembled
on the job by the operators, John w.
Swanson and Thomas M. McCaleb.
"The antenna system was often
erected by saving down a number of
large trees in the forest and stringing
the wires between other tall trees on
the edges of the roughly cleared space
A wire was usually strung from the
folding table that held the instruments
to a ground loop.
Curiosity Kills Cobra.
Ou one OCCASION dL nlSnl IN the
forest McCaleb, while transmitting
was startled to see a small cobra of
very poisonous species come crawl
ing UP this wire, attracted by the hum
of the converter perhaps or by small
electric light. He waited until the
snake pushed its head on the table and
severed it's neck with his pocket knife
Needless to say, the message suffered
a marked interruption! Snakes were
often seen in making camp, but always
they moved away from men. A num-
Der of very large snakes were shot
1t was almost unnecessary to take aim !;
the snake usually kept his head direct
ly in front Of the muzzle.
1.-THE rivers were full of large fish,
easily hooked or speared. very com