Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-10
PORTRAY
BYRD POLAR FLIGHT
PeriIOuS Trip Through Great
Peaks to Plateau Is Caught
BY Camera.
BY RUSSELL OWEN.

BY Radio to The Star and to the New York
Times
LITTLE AMERICA, Antarctica, De-
cember 9.-The surveying photographs
taken on the eastern fight when the
new range of mountains was discovered
running north and south along the
edge Of Marie Byrd Land have been de-
veloped. Men worked OIL them all night
and the last long roll of film is now on
the reel being dried.
The work has been done under diff
culties. but 1t had to be finished before
the MIN was taken back through the
tropics for fear that some of the I'M
developed film might be spoiled by heat.
While the apparatus was being made
ready for developing these rolls and the
film taken in mapping the bay, the
rough prints OF the photographs made
on the polar flight were being exam
med with interest by Comdr. Byrd and
other members of the expedition.
Trace Flight Up Gorge.
They are fascinating. They trace the
flight through the mountains, I'D the
deep gorge of the glacier where the
walls at times seem only a few feet
away from the plane, show the rising
surface of the Barrier beneath coming
throwing overheard food to tighten the
plane. and then the final hump over
which the plane staggered to the long
slope of the plateau
The scenery is magnificent, great
peaks rising above the plane, cloaked
IN snow except where their black, pre-
cipltous sides are too steep to hold it:
rivers OF ice pouring down: between
them Jumbled mass of mountains a.
impressive as any in the world running
along the edge of the interior plateau,
AS the plane went southwark from
them at the point where it entered the
plateau the photographs taken at in.
terVaIS, so that they overlapped show
the mountain stretched to the east and
gradually curving south until the plane
reached the interior of the polar pla-
teau. Even the mightieSt Of them dis
appeared below the horizon and there
was only a limitless plain beneath,
WITHOUT landmarks or guides. except the
sun and the magnetic compass.
New Range Appears.
On the way south the plane picked
up the range Of mountains between
Amundsen'S trail and SCOTS and then
the new range on the interior edge of
the plateau to the west, which had
never been seen before. Then came the
Axel Heiberg glacier, with its steep
sides and broken crevassed surface.
the tops OF mountains easily recogniza-
bic, like those of Ruth Mountain and
the dominant mass of Don Pedro Chris
torsen.
Along the foot Of the mountains. on
the way back the pictures of the noun
talnS and glaciers were made all the
more impressive from this point as they
rose out of the low level of the Barrier
Ike an almost impenetrable bulwark.
Difficulties Of Flight Shown.
Nothing could so we'll make clear the
difhculty Of this flight as these photo
graphs. The whole trip to the Pole now
can be brought home to any one when
these strips are combined with the ones
from Little America to the mountains
taken on the base-laying fight.
And they are such astounding
mountain scenery that every one has
been porting over them with exclama-
tons of delight. They were not de-
veloped without difficulty. The warm
weather OF the last two weeks has made
the roof OF the photo laboratory leak
like sieve.
Is Hours Of Hard Work.
1t Is long, tiresome task at the best
and the polar pictures took IL continu-
Gus hours of hard work. When they
were taken from the tanks and placed
on the drying reel the water began to
run from the roof in the drying room.
call for help was sent out and oil
cloth was tackled over the reel under
the ceiling.
That stopped the worst of the down.
pour. But the men, splashing around
in water on the floor. tired and hot in
the close quarters in which they worked,
had to watch the film every moment to
prevent its being spoiled When it
came out with only a few water marks,
which do not impair its value, there
was sigh of relief from Mckinley and
his helpers.
Drying Room Is Changed.
The drying room was changed after
that. however. The reel was put in
the little wooden house used for living
quarters and called THE Biltmore."
Two OF the men who slept there were
helping in the developing and the other
two moved out. The reel was rugged be-
tween hunks and an electric motor
hooked up to turn it. An electric fan
was placed on top of the stove so as to
blow warm air over the reel. The de-
Veloping began yesterday afternoon and
the last roll of film was out on the reel
just before noon today.
Faster Work Is Possible.
The improved drying room enabled
the men to work faster and all six rolls
of the long film, including the mapping
pictures of the bay taken only the day
before, were developed. Now every one
Is waiting to see the prints of the new
land to the northeast.
These mountains are particularly in
teresting because they are separated
from any known land heretofore placed
on the charts. Condr. Byrd, on the
eastern flight, few north and east
and south of the Alexandria Mountains,
which run in different direction than
shown on the charts, and there is q
considerable distance between their
eastern end and the new mountains. at
least so miles and probably more.
(Copyright, 1929, by the New York Times Co.
and the st. Louis PoSt-Dispatch. All
rights for publication reserved throughout
the worldly