Evening star., 1926-04-23
CALENDAR KEEPING
PROBLEM IN ARCTIC.
AmundSen Party, Like All
4 Others, Has Hard Time
With Day and Night.
BY RUSSELL ID. OWEN.

BY Wireless TO The Star.
KINGS BAY, Spitzbergen, April %.
The work of unloading the Knut
Skaaluren. the freighter on which
Capt. Roald Amundsen and Lincoln
Ellsworth arrived Tuesday. was de-
layed by the impossibility of bringing
he ship Immediately to the dock. She
WAS jammed in the ice several hun
dred yards from the shore, and all
night men worked chopping holes in
the ice and placing charges of dyna-
mite, with which Il way was smashed
through. 1t was late yesterday morn
1ng-all hours seem alike heretofore
the ship was finally tied to the ice
coated wharf and the stores hoisted
from her hold.
When it was seen that the landing
would be long delayed, everybody took
70 the ice. Officials of the coal COM
panN and the engineers who had been
punldlng the hangar and erecting the
lnoorlng mast came to the ship on
skis to meet Capt. Amundsen and Mr..
Ellsworth and welcome them back
again. The leaders of the expedition
riambered down the ladder to the ice,
followed by retinue carrying suit
cases and bags, shouldered for the
tramp ashore on the rough, broken
surface of the frozen bay.
IcHty ol SuppIlcS.
The first thing seen near the dock
on The shore were the MASSES of ma
terial sent for the dirigible Norge, in
which Capt. Amundsen and Mr.. Ellis
worth plan to fly over the North Pole
10 Point Barrow. Alaska y dirigible
Is more complicated than an airplane
The SnOW-coVered crates containing
spare rudderS, eleVating fins. motors
SlrderS, balloon nets and hydrogen
tanks were all leaning topsy turvy in
The Snowhanks. half covered with the
last snowfall TO this accumulation
brought here a few weeks ago by the
Hobby, will be added the boxes and
tanks in the hold of the Skaaluren.
They were hauled on sleds drawn
10y shaggy little Norwegian horses,
generally followed by an Eskimo dog,
carrying a bone to chew on when
there is nothing else to do A Fordson
tractor was used for Il time, but the
SNOW was too much for it, although
II VIII be used again when the paths
are packed down harder
The tractor and Mr.. Ellsworth's
hat. which, being a veteran North
erner now, he tried to lose, are the
most lncongruous things in Spitz-
bergen.
Mr.. Ellsworth tried to lose the hat
al Tfomosoe before sailing, but some
body put it on the ship. He left it on
the ship, but it was carefully carried
ashore.
Hangar Dominates Village.
All the material must be hauled
nearly a mile to the huge hangar. on
the level space just outside the little
hamlet, the nOrthernmost in the world.
nesting amid huge snow mounds.
The shed is large enough to house
all Of Kings Bay. 1t rises. d huge
dark incumbrance between the settle
ment and the mountains, a strange
sight in the white wilderness about
In front float the Norwegian and
American flags, one on each side
Near the shed to the north is the
mast, 10 feet high, with the Norwe-
gian flag floating on top. This is all
ready except the pipes to carry the
gasoline and the water to the ship
when moored. 1t seems frail. but a
high wind is rare on the west coast
of Spitzbergen at this time Of the year.
foundation, for the ground is frozen
as solid as the concrete in which the
base is imbedded.
The bay is not frozen nearly as far
out as when Capt. Amundsen left last
year. The aviators with the eXpedi-
tion think it impossible for Comdr
Richard +. Byrd to find a stretch of
ice long enough for him to take off,
and the frozen surface is at present
hummOcked and filled with small
hergs from two glaciers, which shine
blue across the bay. Members of the
expedition think that with a flying
boat or skis he might take off on the
snowy surface of the mountainside. if
he could get up enough speed to lift
the heavy load from the ground, but
it would be desperate effort
1t is unusually warm for this time
of year-tOday it was 8 degrees above