Evening star., 1928-04-25
Continued from First Page)

Continued from First Page)
1t took us 18 days of hard walking
to reach land. The ice we walked on
moved faster than we did. Capt Will
kins' years of experience In Arctic
travelling enabled us to return. Each
night we built snow house to sleep
in. BY day we hurried across open
leads Of water and huge ice ridges.
1t was my first real taste Of Arctic
living. l wasA surprised to find it was
not so bad as l had imagined. If one
only knew how to get through.
This year was the first time we real
ly planned TO go right across the
Arctic Ocean from Barrow to Spitz-
bergen. That is further than across
the Atlantic from Newfoundland to
Ireland
On the Arctic flight, of course, we
could get no weather reports. Our
engine must run in unusually cold
weather conditions and navigation prob
ably would be very difficult because of
the proximity of the magnetic Pole.
Knowing the difficulties, it was the
source of the greatest comfort to me
to observe that from the start Capt
wilkins was leaving no stone unturned
to take care of every possible eventual
ity.
Make Long Runway.
The three vain attempts we made to
get Oft the ice at Barrow before we
succeeded were thrilling. The smooth
est ice was on the Barrow Lagoon.
That was where we tried first to get
off, although 1t was only $500 feet
long
With the help of an Eskimo we
nj RI I A Il
length OF the ice. With our heavy
load We were unable to get off, although
with a little wind we might have
managed it. Each time we tried the
wind was slightly abeam or a calm We
then hitched IS dogs to the plane and
dragged to lagoon six miles northeast,
where there vas 30-mile runway If
necessary The Ice here was rougher.
but we cleared a runway a mile long
and made 1t quite smooth by digging
down the rough spots with a pick
On April is, everything was in read!-
ness We had great hope this time of
getting into the air. At 10 o'clock IN
the morning l gave her the gun. WC
started slowly up the runway, 1t was
difficult to keep straight
We had only a foot and half 0f
clearance for the tail on either side SO
mean wreck and a wait Of five months
for the first boat. ! was kept busy
keeping the machine straight until we
got up speed of about 80 miles per
hour then easily took off into the +r
We had a feeling Of triumph as we rosr.
because the take-od was my greatest
anxiety.
Confident OF wilkins.
As We headed northeast into the un-
explored territory on that side of the
Arctic, ! had the greatest faith in TIE
ability of the plane to make the flight
II occurred to me that there were not
many men with whom | would be will
ing to start on such a trip where there
was always a chance of years walk
back. and where the mark We were
shooting for was small island 1900
miles away, with every possible nayigd-
ton handicap in the way, but / had
had before a thorough demonstration
Of Capt. wilkins ability on the ice. as
well as his accuracy In Arctic naViga-
tion. so i felt that my hardest work
was already over.
For the first five hours We flew lazily
along at about 10 miles per hour IN
beautiful sunshine. Then we could see
trouble ahead In the form Of a fog We
ran into IT, The sun and ice diSap-
peared and We zigzagged hither and
thither in an effort TO get free | be-
gan TO wish that instead of being an
aviator Ii had been my lot 10 run q
chicken farm out West " something
less thrilling.
Fortunately. in an hour and 20 min
utes we came into clear sunshine again
| celebrated by holding the controls
with my knees while | had a cup of
coffee and bar of chocolate
Ii was most interesting to know that
We were looking on territory never be-
fore seen by man. l am sure that We
could see a hundred miles TO each side
In my anxiety TO see what was ahead
/ strained my eyes TO see as far as pos
sible l could just as well have sat
back and rested as / knew that In n
few minutes we would be at that point
ahead
Picks Out Landing Places.
The ice below was rough, with very
few landing areas Now and then an
open lead OF water stretched like a blue
snake on the ice tried to have the
best possible landing Ice picked out all
The time in case our engine should fail
After i3 hours in the air We could
see great cloud masses far To the south
Undoubtedly The clouds were on Grant
Land, and We Zig2agged many miles 10
the west In search for land the indi-
cations OF which had been seen by ex-
plorerS while on Grant Land.
We took up our course again Now
and then Capt. Wilkens passed me a
note placing our position. or inquiring
about the engine readings or changing
our compass course. HIS compass was
steady and correct, One of mine spun
all the time, while the other pointed
north "a reference possibly TO the vari
ance between the magnetic and terres-
trial poles) no matter which way We