Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-31

over the South Pole ne
will be following the path of illustQ'
Gus predecessors who have sought TO
solve the mystery of the most de,;o-
late corner of creation. compared with
which Greenland and the Sahara
: Desert are mild and hospitable.
The exploration of Antarctica ap-
peals to the imagination in somewhat
the same fashion as would exploration
of another planet. The world 8 sew
enth continent, buried under eternal
ice, remains almost as mysterious as
the dark side of the moon, despite the
efforts of hardy voyagers for two cen
turies TO learn the secrets of It's black,
frozen mountain passes. Four or nVe'
rsarties have wintered on its shores
Three expeditions have penetrated to'
the half way point, or nearly so. Ihe1
South Pole has twice been located!
But the great. fundamental probiems)
OF the South Polar regions await thei
! coming of Byrd and his followers for
their solution.
1t is particularly fitting that this
expedition should be led by an Ameri-
can aviator The United States has a
sort of heyditary interest in the Far
South, former sailors first sighted the
mountain peaks and first landed on
the tiesEate islands under the Ant
arctic ice barrier. Her flag, 1t IS
likely, will float soon beside those OF
Great Britain and Norway in the CEN
ter1of the great interior plateau where
, is located the southernmost point on
e;taSh
FOnce across the great Antarctic ice
barrier and the aviator might as we'll
Aoe flying above the moon, so FAR as
Fanny proba biity of human help in case
I of misfortune is concerned. he VIII
be cut off almost completely from the
: world of human beings--in the home
of terrible billiards. and everlasting
: ice.
; The land mass of Antarctic is com
parable TO that of Continental Europe
-approXimately $500, 900 square l,hiles.
r This vast area of desolatioU and
! death, forming a Jagged circle around
j the South Pole, can be divided roughly
into three zones. First, tha explorer
must cross the ice. BARRIER which
stretches southwark for about 300
, miles. This is a level but'rough plain
of ice, broken up by bottoMless chasms
and swept by terrible blizzards. The
floor of this ice barrier in some places
is 1000 feet above Sea level. 1t OPP
poses to the stormy Antarctic Ocean
an almost unbroken circle of high.
black cliff, dashed, by angry water.
Beyond the coastal plain rise the
mountains. Icy peaks which probably
never will be scaled by man push
their heads into clouds at attitudes of
$4,000 to 10000 feet. Between the
II peaks there are dangerous passes
4 Over the MOUNTAINS comes the high
, plateau. $500 feet above sea level-a
4 fairly smooth. plain. in the center OF
which is thefSouth Pole.
n MEATH Is king of Antarctica. The
~ ice-jeweed mountains are his
1 palaces and the ice plains his fertile
i fields. All living things are left be-
- single exceptions are occasional
= patches of moss and lichen and one or
;, two degenerate types of insects. The
= shores abound with those queer hui
= man-like birds, the penguins. Whales
and one variety of seal are abundant
in the nearby Antarctic waters. But
the domain of life ends with the ice
fbarrier. The lost explorer can hold no
. hope of living off the country.
In this respect the Antarctic is strik.
ingly different from the Arctic. Dur
ing it's brief Summer at least the Far
North is prolific of life. Gulls, polar
hears and walrus, it is likely, pene-
itrate as far as the North Pole Itself.
y Great herds of musk oxen Craze on
[ lush grass oyer the Arctic islands.
(, With the return Of the sun after the
/. long Winter night, the valleys are
covered with a magic carpet of blue
and scarlet blossoms. Insects are SO
abundant that they are almost unen-
durable. There are rare days when
the Arctic is uncomfortably warm,
and the explorer would welcome the
refreshment of electric fans Under
these conditions human beings have
endured for generations on the inhos-
pitable northwest Greenland coast.
But there are no fields of grass in
Antarctica- No flowers cover the
mountain passes in mid-January.
Even the hardest Eskimo could live
on the continent only SO long as his
store of food and fuel lasted. There
would be no hope of replenishing it.
The reason for this unchallenged
sway of death in the Far South is
that the temperature seldom remains
for long above the freezing point of
water. There is no time for seeds to
terminate on the occasional patches
of bare ground.
The South is not as cold as the
North in Winter. Mid-January tenn.
: peratures at the North Pole may fall
( to 20 or so below zero. Antarctica
seldom sees days of more than sc
below, and the usual mid-July tenn
perature is much higher. During the
Summer, however, the mercury hovers
close to the freezing point instead OF
going to 40 or so above, as frequently
happens in the Far North.
LifelesS and uninhabitable, the only
possible economic value of this land
mass would lie fin it's mineral re
sources. The extent of these may
never be discovered. Even IL they
Were made known. it probably would
be impossible ever to exploit them
because of the insuperable difficulty
OF arranging transportation. 1t LONG
has been a favorite dream of romance
writers to imagine great gold deposits
and areas of radum-bearing rock
locked up in the Antarctic continent.
The profound interest OF science ir
Antarctica does not lie in any posi-
HE future utility, but in the secret OF
its past. This land mass about the
South Pole was not always an area
of ice and snow. At a comparatively
recent period in geologic time-somt
believe very recent--it was covered
with semitropical forests and abound
ed with life. There are coal deposits
which prove that a semi-tropical vege
tation of tree ferns existed during the
carbonferous age. But there also Il