Evening star., 1926-06-06
We came over to the beach at ESQ
Greenwich time

We came over to the beach at ESQ
Greenwich time.
After a look down we understood
that 46 hours and As minutes after
we had left the ground in Kings Bay
we had reached Point Barrow at II
degrees north latitude, 1856 degrees
west longitude. The transpolar flight
was realized.
For the first time in history human
eyes had seen the region between the
North Pole and Point Barrow. We
had thus passed just over the sup
posed Keenan's Land north of Point
Barrow without seeing it. They who
have not believed in its existence are
consequently right We were also able
to state that in the region we had
flown over in our airship there exists
neither continents nor islands. For in
spite Of the fog on the last part of the
! flight there were so many openings IN
it that in case land exists in the
regions we passed we should have
observed 1t.
We are not yet able to say how great
a part of the till now uneXplored area
| in the Arctic the members of the
Amundsen- n-Ellsworth-N Mobile transpolar
fight expedition have looked upon.
Before we can fix 1t exactly the aver
age altitude of the Norge on It's flight
from the geographical pole to Point
Barrow must be stated and observa-
tions of a different kind made on the
| flight: but we don't think we say too
much in asserting that the expedition
looked down upon 100, 900 square miles
of hitherto unknown territory.
Now for Safe Landing.
The transpolar flight was realized
when the Norge passed the coast of
Alaska. but the airship was far from
| it's goal, a safe landing place. We have
already mentioned that due to the
failure of the wireless, we had no in
| formation Of the weather conditions
over Alaska except the showing of a
| cyclone over the Behring Sea that
seemed to be stationary. On the flight
since we had entered the fog the wind
had been more favorable to US than
other weather elements. We had back
wind down to II. Here we got head
winds, the direction for long time
being southeast, later on shifting to
the southwest The wind grew pretty
rough before we reached the coast of
| Alaska, where we had to choose our
| further route. If we proceeded south
as far as Nome we could, due to the
| cyclone mentioned. calculate upon fav-
| orable winds for the last part of the
| distance. Also Tie SOulIl IOdSI VI liiC
Seward Peninsula seemed likely also
to be sheltered against northerly
winds, thus Offering good landing
| places.
We had, however, not much time to
discuss the various possibilities after
we had reached the coast of Alaska,
because the ship flew in a region of
fog with heavy rime frost constantly
forming. Mobile, however, made up his
mind to go southwark and try to reach
Nome. Afterward, we have been told
that it might have been better to
have tried to reach Fairbanks, in the
eastern part of the interior Of Alaska,
weather conditions there at the time
of our landing being better than on
the part of the coast where we went
| down.
But in spite Of the weather there
being better, it was possible that we
chose the best way. A flight in fog
over mountains, without knowing
their height, perhaps being far from
our supposed position, Is dangerous.
In any case a discussion now about
these things has only the original in
terest, and we have to describe what
happened in the last "a hours we were
| in the air, this part of the flight being
by far the most exciting.
(Copyright. 1926. in United States. by the
crat. outside United States by Norwegian
-'' CTo be Continued)