Evening star., 1928-04-24

When the surface beneath us cleared, 1t
was seen to be old, heavy pack ice.
For the next 200 miles we crossed
much young ice, leads and ordinary
pack that apparently drifted back and
forth between the old pack we had
crossed and some heavier Ice TO the
north
Believed Floating.
We came to that old heavy ridged
Ice Perhaps that old Ice mass rests on
terra firma and Is stationary, but my
decision, judging from the fact that no
great pressure ridges were noticed at
its edges, Is that 1t Is floating. The
wind In that vicinity was behind u.s. In
the direction from which we came.
A storm center had formed. but we
travelled out of the edge OF the storm
rim, crossed a calm belt and entered
another storm system that was evidently
centering around north Greenland.
After crossing the old polished Ice
masses we came to ordinary pack. The
snowdrifts we're again northwest and
southeast, formed mostly by northwest
winds. From there to the neighbor-
hood of Grant Land the winds through
out the season had been variable. The
ice was ridged and pressed in squares,
resembling huge chessboard, near
Grant Land.
just after coming to obviously near
land the Ice clouds again obscured our
vision. We were now certain OF the
Greenland storm From an altitude OF
8 600 feet we could see the high storm
clouds 400 miles away. AS we swung
clear of clouded Grant Land we saw
what Peary named the Big Lead. It
stretched from the neighborhood OF
Cape Columbia toward Greenland until
Loaf f,, Il ItpNA "a
the ice was much fractured.
4S Below Zero.
Here we slipped from the edge Of
the Greenland windstorm into a still
cold OF 40 degrees below zero. but only
for few minutes. Drift observations
soon showed that wind. hurrying for
ward the warm uplifting air current
about the open water near Spttzbergen
had us on its lap.
We we're at our highest latitude and
soon. as Peary said he was, we were
slipping down the North Pole hill in
fine shape. The ice pack north of
Greenland was terribly broken, much
of the area thinly covered with ice,
too thin to land. Sledging about there
on the day we passed would have been
impossible.
Northward the wind had been fire.
quently II not constantly throughout
the season from the north or slightly
northwest A few miles back and nearer
Greenland. 1t had been variable About
there winds falling from the Greenland
plateau probably met the equally cold
north currents.
Four hundred miles before we came
to 1t we could see that without doubt
storm would greet us at the high
tot nf nitgharOaT
wind hurried us over the ice. which was
thin and much broken. Evidently in
fiuenced by the warm water from the
south. the pack was turned and twisted
and there we're snow drifts in all di-
rectionS as far as We could see. and un-
til the rolling cumulus clouds prevented
further observation.
Our meteorological observations show
ed storm centering about Point Bar
row as we left. calm about latitude 80,
circling storm with It's center about
north Greenland, strong north wind to
Spitzbergen.
To List Information.
When We have compared them with
other observations. and when our OBJ
servations of snow drift and ice move
ment are carefully plotted, some useful
information should result OF our expert
cnre In Arctic navigation.
It was. as we expected. no more diff
cult. perhaps. easier. than elsewhere.
Our bubble sextant worked perfectly,
our maps and charts were well prepared.
our plane in normal afr was steady in
flight. facilitating observation. The
compasses, while not perfect. we're more
or less dependable facilities for dead
reckoning
plane and engine than that they were
perfect.
tCnpyright 1928 in the United States Can,
ada. south America Mexico Cuba AMI
continental Europe by the New York
Times Co. copyright IN Great Britain aud
ireland hy the London Times.l