Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-05-10
1900 MILE ROUND
Continued from Page One)

| in negotiating with dog sled. This
also made Byrd's' the first Of nine ex-
petitions attempting the feat to reach
the North Pole this year.
His giant three-motored airplane
carried him safely over wastes which
| Amundsen last year pronounced UNI
safe for airplane flights, and the dis
lance travelled, roughly 1900 miles, was
equal to more than months mushlng
in the Arctic under the most ideal
conditions for dog teams.
The flight and return of Commander
Byrd, recounted by wireless, were far
different both in act and the trans
| mission of news than the departure
of Admiral Robert e. Peary from Sgd
| ney, N. S., July Z, 1908.
Peary had hardly cleared the harbor
and was just beginning to fight some
Of the worst of the Atlantic Oceans
storms in the little schooner Roose-
Welt in the time Byrd went to and re-
turned from the Pole.
The report that Byrd, who last year
accompanied Macmillan into the
north, had actually reached the Pole
before returning to his base, was re-
ceived with surprise here, as the an
nounced plans for his first fight called
only for negotiating the 400 miles to
Peary Land and return, a total Of 500
miles.
| This in itself was considered dar-
ing feat because of the scarcity of
| landing places on the jagged Arctic
ice plains The flight of at least 1900
| miles involved in round trip to the
| Pole rivalled the most optimistic hopes
of observers of this flight.
In four months after setting out,
Peary had only reached Etah, Green
| land, and there still remained dash
of hundreds of miles to the Pole.
During the following months, until
June of 1909. no word was received
| concerning Peary except here and there
a multitude of rumors.
| 1t seemed for while that Peary
| would be robbed of the honor, for on
| January of 1909 DIR. Frederick A.
| wastes with the claim that he had
been the first. This later was refuted
by scientific bodies. but not until
Peary had consumed months in show-
| ing his own proofs.
The sealed scientific instruments and
| gauges carried by the plane of Conn.,
! mander Byrd are expected to eradicate
much of the detail heretofore neces-
| sary in establishing the authenticity
| of travel claims.
Captain Road Amundsen, who last
year failed to reach the Pole with
| two airplanes. in 1908 made an unSuc-
cessful attempt to reach the Pole by
schooner and dog sled.
| When Amundsen dashed into the
north last year, however, he and Lin
| coin Ellsworth, hacker and partner in
| the expedition, ended by experiencing
both the thrill of flight into the north
and the troubles of ice travel
| With their planes stuck fast in the
ice. they were out Of touch with their
base for four weeks while they labori-
! ously trekked back, finally encounter
| ing a fishing boat which returned them
| to the, same base as the one for the
| successful flight today.
The first attempts to reach the Pole
| were made exclusively with ships, ex-
plorers being afraid to venture onto
the snow. John Ross, an Englishman,
was the first to adopt the sled, when
in 1915 he made an attempt, foredoom-
ed to failure, pulling his sled behind
| him.
McClintock in 1857 inaugurated the
use Of dogs, and some years later the
light sled was developed.
Then for more than half a century
the means of transportation in the
| Arctic Circle remained stationary. The
next step was the airplane.