Evening star., 1926-05-12
Victory of the Norge.

| The alrShip Norge crossed tne MOI I'll
Pole at l am, Norwegian time, today
| and the wireless Of the ship, at the
! moment of this writing. is telling that
| the Norge. flying a mile high and sail
| ing sixty miles an hour. is passing over
| the unexplored part Of the earth be-
tween the North Pole and Alaska. In
few hours news may come that the
Norge with her crew Of seventeen has
arrived at Point Barrow, Alaska, MAX
ing the transit from All island in
Europe to the mainland Of America
and a part Of the United States. 1t is
an impressive event. The flight of
Byrd and Bennett to the Pole and
back to Spitzbergen was an achieve
ment which tended to immunize peo-
pie against Arctic thrills. but the per
formance Of the Norge bearing Amund-
sen, Ellsworth, Mobile and their COM
panions gives to peoples over the world
the utmost qualification.
After going into the sky at Kings
Bay, Spitzbergen, the wireless oper-
ator of the Norge, Frithjof Storm
johnson, was in communication with
the station at Kings Bay. and hour by
hour reported the position Of the ship,
speed and height. the appearance OF
the ice and animals seen on the ice
desert. With a map one could follow
the course of the Norge, So degrees,
S5 degrees, SO degrees, one degree
from the Pole, 90 degrees. the Pole.
Then, though not turning from the
north course followed from Spitz-
bergen. the Norge was heading south
on our side Of the earth and the posi-
ton Of the ship was given in descend
ing degrees. She was sailing through
the sky over the million or SO miles Of
the earth's surface marked on the map
"Unexplored Area" lying between the
Pole, Alaska and Siberia. No land is
reported at this moment, but the view
from the ship, though 1t is a mile high,
covers but a relatively narrow strip
Of the unexplored region. The course
from the Pole to Point Barrow, Alaska,
is between the 150th and 160th par
allels of longitude.
The feat Of the Norge seems to make
it plain that she or another ship will
land at the Pole and that men will
make a close examination Of things
at the north end Of the earth. The
thickness Of the ice. the depth Of the
sea and the character Of sea bottom
will be learned. Something more than
is now known may be learned Of ter
restrial or solar magnetism. The
sea bottom at the Pole may tell some
thing about the age Of the earth and
whether the north part Of the earth
was always frozen. II new land Is
found on the north cap Of the earth
it will be explored and the lands
known to be within the circle OF the
S0th degree latitude-North Greenland,
Peary Land, Grant Land, Ellesmere
Land and Franz Joseph Land-will be
explored. In the case of much of the
Arctic land on the maps all that is
known of it is that it is there. Whether
mineralized. or, If so, how, is not
known. re there are rocks in the Pole
region they would tell something Of
the worlds history and if they con-
tain fossils they would tell much Of
the early earth. That coal has been
found very far North indicates that
the present North Pole was not always
the end of the earth or that the north
end Of the earth was not always frozen.
Exploration Of Arctic lands seems for
bidding, but with airplanes and
dirigibles for transport and bases in
the new lands it can be carried out