Evening star., 1925-06-21

ii l u q a II o.
through the first strenuous days of
effort to relaunch their single remain.
ing plane.
The first hour of our flight toward
the North Pole said Capt. Amund-
sen, was glorified by natural phe-
nomena as beautiful as I ever saw.
We had encountered light fog soon
after we reached Amsterdam Island,
% miles north of Kings Bay. Through
this fog. just beyond Amsterdam
Island, we saw a double halo, in the
middle of which the sun cast a per-
feet shadow of our plane.
Beckoned Enticingly.
These two multi-colored halos
beckoned us enticingly into the un-
known
The fog lasted two hours. getting
thicker and thicker, but the N-24 and
the Mo flew close together, always
in sight of each other, through the
banks Of mist. We increased our alti.
tude considerably. The Wind in the
upper strata was a stiff northeastern
breeze. The fog below US prevented
all observation of drift or ground
speed, which is vital at the start of
any flight
snaces in the fog, which enabled us
TO see the ice, broken with many mar.
row lanes of water
The fog lasted until midway be-
tween latitude SO and 49, Suddenly
the mist disappeared and the entire
panorama of Polar ice stretched away
before our eyes the most spectacular
sheet of snow and ice ever seen by
man from an aerial perspective. I
stared out of the cockpit fascinated.
During the entire eight hours of
the flight Polewards, was so busy
with observations that l forgot to
pull on my gloves. From the mo-
ment of the hop-off l watched the
sun compass constantly. No words
are too strong to use in praise of this
new instrument. 1t kept the exact
reflection of the sun constantly be-
lore my eyes and assured us that our
general direction was right. Our
speed averaged 75 nautical miles an
hour (S5 statute miles,. The ther-
mometer during our flight averaged
minus 10 Centergrade IA above zero
FahrenheiD
Narrowly Escape Crash.
After two hours of flyine we
reached the Polar pack ice, which
stretches unbroken and solid to the
furtherest North. Through occasional
holes in the fog, we saw that IT was
marked with heavy pressure ridges
all over it. No landing place was
visible anywhere. The planes con.
tinued to fly together with perfect
precision.
AT l o'clock in the morning we
should have been, by dead reckoning.
at latitude $3.50, but finding that the
magnetic compass showed great varia-
ton, L realized we had drifted far to
the west Just after l o'clock we
Slghted the first open water, a wide
lead in the pack ice, forming a basin.
AS it was the only possible land
Ing place seen in eight hours, l i'm
medlately decided to descend, so as to
observe accurately our position and
then continue the flight The N-24
was so close that its crew could see
US preparing to descend, so they fol
lowed suit.
"As we climbed down the motor
unaccountably halted. So, instead of
having a choice of a landing place,
Riiser-Larsen was forced out of the
man Lead into narrow branch.
Heaven knows how we ESCAPED com
plete destruction. The wings passed
the ice hummocks on the edges of
the lead by a hairs breadth, the
plane finally halting with her nose
buried in a great hummock, where
she stuck
The three of us were unable to
budPe the maChlne. We wanted to
turn about or back into the main
lead. Our position was precarious, as
we feared the narrow lead might close
momentarily.
I'VE quickly ightened the plane,
removing the provisions and other
freight to high, dry hummock.
Then we tried again to drag the ma
chine onto the ice, but it's 6 tons
was too heavy for three men.
Comrades Are Lost.
During the landing we had lost
sight of the N-24. We were greatly
worried. We did not find her until
the next day, May %, on the other
side of the main lead. We immedi-
ately got into communication by
means of flag signals
"All day we tried to cut off the
hummock to enable US to get our
plane onto the ice. But the ice was
hard as steel and our only implement
was 2-pound safety AK and our
sheath knives. Hopeless necessity
inspired us to lash a knife blade to
the end of a ski stick, which served
eXcellently to slash the ice. Our fail
ure to provide ourselves with ice cut
ters was due to the fact that we
hoped off, as it was, with LOO
pounds overweight.
All day May "a we worked at low
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