Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-01

the United States, bound for the Ant
arctic, to spend two years exploring
u South Polar regions by airplane.
Just what has he accomplished in his first
year?
What will he accomplish during the Antarctic
Summer which is Just beginning?
Is it worth the million dollars it is costing,
and the possible loss of life of his staff and
crew?
These are the questions which l. as member
Of the Explorers Club, familiar with modern
exploration, am constantly asked by business
and professional men.
Commander Byrd,s first purpose is that of
every explorer: to wipe from the map the white
spots that mark the mknown-to enable man
to know the world on which he lives.
Only few UNEMPLOYED spots remain-a COM
paratively small field of floating ice In the Arctic
Ocean near the North Pole; sections Of the
Arabian desert; tangles Of the Brazilian jungle,
and. the vast unknown Antarctic Continent
nearly as large as the United States and Canada
combined.
Antarctica contains about 1900 600 unex-
plored square miles Of frozen, uninhabited land,
the last big challenge to mans mastery Of the
globe With three ships Of the sea and three
ships Of the air, Byrd and his men are seeking
to answer many puzzling questions.
AS we know 1t now, the Antarctic Continent
Is a great high pancake almost touching the
entire Antarctic Circle. 1t has shore line Of
roughly 5000 sea miles, or more than third
Of the distance around the world 1t Is CEN
tered by a vast icy plateau 10000 feet high.
This great pancake Of land at the bottom of
the world has two great bites taken out of it by
the vast encirclng Southern Ocean. The
smaller bite Is south of the Atlantic Ocean,
running from 10 degrees west to so degrees west
and is called Weddell Sea. The larger and
deeper one is south Of New Zealand, the Ross
Sea-
Byrd chose the Ross Sea approach to the polar
plateau because New Zealand makes an admit
rable base for his ships during the long night
and bowling billiards Of the Antarctic Winter.
In his ships he was able to proceed farther
south, and thus land his planes and supplies
within about TOO miles Of the South Pole.
Ross Sea itself penetrates the Antarctic Con-
tinent to within $50 miles Of the Pole, but the
great landward depth Of it is filled with q great
wedge of ice whose rearward front blocks Ross
Sea in a wall of ice known as Ross Barrier
Those intrepid explorers, Amundsen and Scott
who separately reached the South Pole during
December and January Of 1911-19I2 followed
the edges Of this vast ice cake in their sled
Journeys southwark.
In places the Ross Barrier rises as an ice wall
straight for $50 to 200 feet from the sea, and is
absolutely unscalable. Vast chunks break on
and float to sea rs flat-topped icebergs.
Toward the eastern end the barrier becomes
lower, and there Is the Bay of Whales where
Amundsen established his camp, Framheim.
Byrd, like Amundsen, chose to approach the
low end Of the barrier, so that he could tie his
ships to it and unload on its 3Q-foot top In
other sections It would have been impossible TO
hoist his airplanes high up crumbling ice cliffs
or over rocky edges Of the land to the east and
west.
Byrd's icebreaker, the City of New York,
carried half the members Of the expedition and
200 tons OF smaller stores and equipment But