Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-07

|
| and this would be the case at the No
only in the higher areas that there
have not been discovered in the Antal
AS a matter Of fact, there has bee
| true, perhaps. for two reasons: First, b
| toward the South Pole as they have I
because Of the ice which surrounds II
accessible.
| The South Pole itself is 10000 feet
high and there have been two lines of
march toward 1t, one made by Amund-
sen from one end of the great ice bar
rier. and the other made by Scott
from the other side Of this barrier.
Guard Against SCOTS Fate.
| Now, this ice barrier lies in the
Ross Sea, south of New Zealand, and
| it is the best approach which has been
discovered to the South Pole itself,
which lies quite 1000 miles away. It
| is either solid ice or snow and has a
great many creases. Scott and his
companions on their return from the
| Pole got within Is miles of their de-
| pot, where there was food. and a
| raging storm came up and held them
| to their portable tent until they
starved and froze to death. AS ]
shall explain, we are making plans
which we believe will protect us from
such a fate.
There is one great difference with
| respect to exploration In the North
Polar and South Polar regions In
Summer there is unlikely to be storms
around the North Pole, but in the
South Polar regions these storms
spring up frequently and sometimes
with terrific violence. Therefore.
aviators who attempt to conquer the
South Pole should have knowledge Of
meteorology themselves and should
take along the best meteorologists
available.
The great ice barrier to which /
have reference ranks as one Of the
natural wonders of the world. It is
400 miles wide, 400 miles deep toward
the pole and 200 feet thick, a solid
hunk Of ice which some scientists. in.
GLIDING Amundsen, think rests upon
ground.
We hope to accomplish our mission
in two trips. The first one will be
a preliminary expedition. I am not
yet ready to announce definitely when
we will leave, but probably the earliest
date at which the barrier could be
| reached would be the first part of Sep
TENDER.
Plan To Leave In Fall.
The expedition will leave the United
States some time in the Fall, going by
| way of New Zealand to the ice which
lies north of the Ross Sea at that time
Of the year. Then we would have to
drive through the ice, in which many
ships have gone down.
We expect to have a personnel COM
parable to that Of the Arctic expedi-
ton, about half hundred men. We
-. AnIr ~aY1 "a IT,
will be a three-engine plane and the
other a one-engine plane. Both Of
them can be equipped with pontoons
necessary to fly from the water or over
snow, where the pontoons can be
changed to skis.
The smaller airplane will be used
for reconnaissance work and notably
for finding landing places for the larger
plane. I am very glad to have had the
experience I got on our two expedi-
tons into the Arctic regions because
that enabled me to learn something
about flying from the snow with skis.
We also expect to take with US some
dog team drivers and half a hundred
or so dogs, with sleds. These will be
utilized to haul supplies from the edge
OF the ice up to our main base, to help
put down bases along the route to the
Pole and to allow scientists to go off
on subexpeditions Of their own in
different directions.
It is thought that the attack on the
south polar region would not be SO
| hazardous, il bases were put down
every hundred miles, because in case
of the forced landing of the planes we
could walk from base to base and
| thus get back to safety.
No Food Supply In South.
So far as is known there is no food
whatever in the Antarctic continent,
whereas there are some seal and polar
bear in parts of the Polar Sea. Also
| there is considerable game in the
| Polar region. But it is only on the
fringe Of the Antarctic continent that
food can be procured. There are to
be found birds, seal and whale, but no
polar bear.
| On this preliminary expedition we
will probably go down to the ice bar
rier on a whaling ship. On our first
trip to Etah. the northernmost
which Perry used to attack the North
Pole, which lies only about 1880 miles
away, we had to buck considerable
ice as late as July, and did not reach
Etah until Augusts1
| This meant that we had less than
a month for operations, as before Sep
| TENDER open water began to freeze
around the seaplanes. If we reached
the ice barrier the first part Of Sep
TENDER as we expect to do, we will
have until the first Of March for
operations.
We should then be able probably to
get enough information and put down
enough bases to be able to penetrate
into A,oto hn
following Summer season. In this
case. and l cannot be at all certain
about 1t, we may not have to spend
down there the great Antarctic night,
which lasts about six months. We
will, however. go prepared to- stay
about a year and a half
This means that we shall require
the warmest of fur clothing for the
personnel, such as reindeer parkas,
al IT,