Evening star., 1925-12-27
COOLIDGE AMONG FIRST TOLD
OF PLAN FOR POLAR FLIGHT
Possibility of Discovery
of New Land for u. S.
Is Stressed.
Preparations of Other
Nations for Expeditions
Also Cited.

The publication last week of Presi
| dent Cooldge'S letter indorSing the
project for an Arctic fight next Spring
| from Point Barrow to SpitzberSen, has
| revealed that the President was one
| of the first Americans-outside the
! little circle of those who developed
/ and financed the project-to be in
| formed of the plan.
Shortly after the proposal for the
| Wilkins expedition was launched in
| Detroit William B. Mayo, general
manager of the Ford Motor Co. and
president of the Detroit Aviation SO
ciety, wrote to Mr.. Coolidge a letter,
which was signed Jointly by him and
| by the secretary of the society. Carl
B. F'ritsche. The letter informed the
President that the society was about
to join in an attempt to explore the
! ice pack between Point Barrow and
the ice pole. that they hoped to climb
the North Pole by air" and to dem.
onstrate the existence of a short com
mercial air route over the dome of
the globe.
The Mayo F'ritsche letter went on to
point out that Arctic airplane eXpe-
ditionS were being organized in other
countries. and Ia tell the story of Sir
John Franklin the British explorer.
net in 1S45 to urge the British gov
ernment to support his plans for an
expedition which would search for the
northwest passage. They related
that the British cabinet members
thumbed maps and discussed details
and eventualities until late into the
night. and that finally Sir John bang
ing his fist on the table, shouted;
Some one is going to discover the
northwest passage; il might as well
be England
Land Really Expected.
Mr.. Mayo and Mr.. Fritsche then in.
formed the President that in SO far as
the possible discovery of new lands in
the Arctic is concerned. the Detroit
Aviation Society felt that lit might
as well be the United States"
Some scientists here believe that
the Detroit expedition Will add a new
continent to the territory of the
United States-a continent with an
area of perhaps 100000 square miles,
or twice the size of Texas.
There has been a great deal of dis
cussion in official Government circles
here during the past few days as to
the likelihood of the discovery by the
Wilkins expedition of some large body
perts are mostly of the opinion that
such land exists. elaborate arGu-
ments are built up on the somewhat
fragmentary scientific evidence which
has been gathered in the Far North.
Most of the latter-day explorers who
skirted the uneXplored ice cap which
Capt. Wilkins is planning 20 study
from an airplane. have carried deep
water sounding machines on their
Sledges and probed the sea beneath
them. Their records show that al.
most everywhere they Travelled the
polar ocean was well-like basin, de
void of any shoals which might indi
cate the presence of land between
Point Barrow and the undiscovered
ice pole. Nansen drifted around the
unexplored area on the Siberia Franz
Joseph Land side. He reported depths
OF from 3,4o0 TO $500 meters as he
moved from the eishtieth to eighty
fifth parallels of north latitude.
Peary found deep water just south
of the mathematical pole, Stefanssor
found shoals 100 miles northwest OF
Cape Isachen, but deep water else
where. Leffingwell and Mikkelsen re
ported no bottom at 1000 feet when
they were 100 miles north of Ala ska
Peary Thought He Saw Land.
Between them. these explorers
touched bottom on all sides of the
uneXplored region which has the ice
pole as its center. Nowhere distant
from known land-saye at one place
near the eighty-fifth paralleI-did they
find the sea floor slopinG upward and
limiting Of an unbound continent or
or near the eightyfourth parallel
Yet. Peary attempting to reach the
peak of the globe in 1905, thought
he saw "Crocker Land" in latitude
83 north. longitude los west Mac
| MILAN reported that, he drove his
dogs to this position several years
later and saw no land.
Several persons associated With the
Detroit Arctic expedition have Of
| fered an idea which. II II could HI
| proved sound, would disclose why thu
| Arctic Sea might be very deep oh
the Canadian Alaskan coast and alonG
| peary's route, and vet how il mi-h
| be filled to the surface between Point
| Barrow and the ice pole. Their
! theory would make the very deepnes:
! OF the sea in the explored areas d
proof that land exists between the
meridains which inclose Capt. Viii
!, kjns' proposed line cf flight.
! A great river, the Mackenzie, flows
out cf orthern Canada into Beaufor'
! Sea Is it not possible, thev ask
that the water CT this river, working
! its way straight out toward the cen
! ter of the polar pack, is DETECTED
and divided? Is it not possible tha'
one branch OF this submerged stream
is shifted around beneath the polar
pack to the east and north Ueary
route), and the other branch TO tht
west and south tStorkerson's anC
| LeffinGwell and Mikkelsen's routes)
| And what. it * asked. could deflec