Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-30
BYRD PLANNING TO EXPLORE
AREA BEYOND FOURTEEN PEAKS
Considers Naming Group After John D., Jr
Carpenter and Cook Designated
for Honors.

that we were heading fora bit Of bare
| rock showing on the northern side. The
valiant Scott had seen this peak from
the sea in 1902 when he had fought his
! way through some ice packs, and then
in 1911 two men had been able to reach
| it with dog teams after weeks of strug-
Cling along the coast line. We looked
down upon the spot where the explorer
| Prestaud, had been stuck in his tent
for days in snowStorm, finally having
to dig himself and his dogs out. From
then on We were over areas never
touched by human feet. We could see
number Of peaks running southeast
ward Scott had named them the Alex
andra Mountains They were around
$500 feet high and several of them
showed bare rocks on the northern
side.
1t is extraordinary how pleasing the
sight of this rock was after so many
weeks OF nothing but ice and snow. The
Snow-covered land from these peaks
evidently sloped rapidly to the sea-
There were extraordinary terraced
effects and the whole area was greatly
crevassed. To our left the Ross Sea
was frozen over for miles and we noted
a large number of ice islands in it.
Most of them were round Some
seemed to project up 100 feet from the
ice edge. At one point there was a
small glacier coming down to the sea
ice and around it was a pond of open
water. 1t looked as if the sea ice there
seldom breaks up. 1t was fairly smooth
and not much ridge. With pressure
there must be barrier or land to the
northward to hold this land To the
northeast there was the appearance of
land, but we were catching up with
the storm that had passed over Little
America the day before and the viSi-
bility ahead was no longer good.
We could get the dim outline of snow
covered land to the east and southwark
and soon we came to round mountain
on our right, smooth and entirely snow
covered. 1t appeared to be separated
from King Edward Land by channel,
or not this channel was at sea level.
We were flying at that time about 5000
feet. Another channel separated this
mountain from what appeared to be an
island dead ahead. We examined this
channel as carefully as possible and it
was very evident that the ice to the
north and east of this land was sea ice.
Appearance Of Island.
This second mountain had all the
appearances Of being an island, but this
cannot be definitely proved until it is
mapped with our mapping camera when
the visibility is better than we expert
enced. A few minutes later we began
lodging snow squalls. 1t was too bad,
as we wanted to find out whether or
not King Edward Land was an island.
1t was clearer to the northWard, so we
swung over in that direction. Again
we got the impression of high barrier
or Snow-covered land well ahead of us.
We were now over the frozen Ross Sea
and there continued to be a number of
large ice islands.
Visibility to the southwark seemed
excellent, so we set our course back to
the first peak we had passed and di-
rected course to the southwark. The
air got very rough here. One bump
dropped us 500 feet. There appeared
to be a channel to the northward of
Scott NunatakS, so 1t Is possible that
King Edward Land is an island. Bal
chen has expressed this opinion. How
ever, 1t Is a point yet to be proved.
There was perfect visibility to the
south of us. This time June received a
radio message from the City of New
York that the Eleanor was in sight.
That was pleasing. Presently there was
an exclamation from Balchen. There
was mountain peaks dead ahead and
showing lot of bare rock. We were
then flying at an altitude of 1000 feet.
Soon other peaks appeared to the south
ward. all of them showing bare rock.
We must admit that we got kick out
of this. We had found new group of
mountains. They ran about north and
south and in all we found ii peaks, ex-
tending for about 80 miles.