The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-08-17
Huge Ship Races Steadily
Over DesoIate Stretches
of Siberia.
WINDS, FOG TO Be MET
No Difficulty Experienced on
Second Hop of World
Tour.
BY EUGENE LYONS

MO0COW, Aug. lI.--haclng stead
ily through the unexplored skies
above the lonely, desolate stretches
of northern Siberia, the Graf Zep-
pelin continued today to make rapid
progress toward Toxic, the goal of
the mighty airliner In the second
leg of her flight around the world.
After crossing central Europe,
Russia and the hazardous UralS, a
mountain chain which In the early
stages of the flight was regarded
with great apprehension, the dirigi-
bic today was in the very heart of
Siberia, making for the northern
edge of Lake Baikal.
The Zeppelin's position at Q a. m.
Moscow time today q a. m. eastern
standard time) was approximately
1900 miles northeast of Moscow, and
considerably more than half way on
its route from Friedrichshafen to
Toxic.
These reports indicated the Yep
pelin was well ahead of her sched-
ule in the most dangerous flight ever
undertaken by the giant ship and
her commander, DR.. Hugo Eckener. z
Makes Remarkable Progress
DR.. Eckener said before leaving his
home base that he hoped to accom-
plish the approximately 6,600-mile
Journey from Friedrichshafen to
Toxic In about 100 hours. Accord
ing to the present progress and with
the weather continuing favorable,
the dirigible should arrive in Toxic
much before the commander had
hoped it would.
According to the Central weather
bureau here. DR.. Eckener was ex-
pected to find favorable weather
along the OBJ valley. With light ana
variable winds. From there to
Ytniseisk, however, strong winds
were predicted from the west, with
heavy banks of fog which probably
would affect visibility ,~A-
It was believed that not. until the
Zeppelin reached point we'll to-
ward Lake Baikal would DR.. Eek
ener decide on whether. to make "a
straight line for the important
Siberian city of Irkutsk, and then
travel on directly across Mancluria,,
following the Chinese Eastern rail-
way to Vladivostok. or whether to
skirt the northern edge OF the huge
lake and drop into Manchuria on a
circle from the north.
So far the Zeppelin has eX-
perienced no great difficulty, 1t had
passed over some of the most
desolate points in northern Siberia
and the journey was proving In
teresting.
Nomadie Tribes Terrified
All Friday they passed over virgin
forests, some of them stretching for
800 miles and over country which Is
so sparsely inhabited that only an
occasional village could be seen by
the passengers here and there after
hours of travel.
They also passed impenetrable
jungles scattered with Nomadic
tribal natives, tribes, who not only
| never had seen an airship like the
Zeppelin, but never even had seen
an automobile or railway train or
any other vehicle of modern con-
veyance.
The feelings of those tribeSmen
on seeing the air monster speed over
them could only be imagined by the
passengers. Moscow scientists who
have Spent much time in those prim-
tive regions felt certain, however,
that the populace must have been
terrorized.
The natives of those northern
Siberian regions, or the vast ma ajor-
ity Of them, never have been out of
their own environment and never
have been touched by civilization.
After leaving this section of ST.
IBERIA the dirigible was yet to pass
a great stretch of almost completely
uninhabited wastes, hundreds of
miles of them, some of the sections
of which never have been explored
even by Russian geographers.
Very few humans inhahit this
wasteland, and those who do also
belong to Nomadic tribes, some of
which never were conquered by the
Russian government