Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-04

one at that.
Whales in the Bay of Whales.
About month before the City of New
York arrived at the Bay of Whales to
relieve a rather awkward situation, we
were surprised on our way to breakfast
| by a great uproar on the bay, which Is
usually wrapped in dead silence except
! for an occasional cracking of the ice
After breakfast the entire population of
Little America, with as many cameras,
adjourned to the bay. At the first crack
about half mile from our base we
found about dozen big whales having
great time.
1t was a sight of a lifetime to see
| these enormous mammals diving, blow
| ing and at times shooting their noses
out of the water much higher than our
heads. Often they we're so close that We
| could poke them with our ski sticks. /
do not believe that ever before such a
| whale picture was offered to photogra-
pliers, and We surely made the best of
the opportunity. Dozens of still pictures
were taken, not to mention hundreds of
feet of motion picture film.
Plane Survey Work
When the airplanes had been dug out
of their snow hangers and the test
| fight had been made, the way was open
| for aerial fight and aerial survey. Aerial
survey in the United States Is usually
accomplished by taking series of over
| tapping photographs with the camera
pointing vertically down and the sur
face of the film parallel to the ground
From these pictures very accurate line
| map can be drawn over a network OF
control points which have been obtained
| by the usual ground methods.
Exploration aerial mapping presents
| an entirely different problem, coverage
and detail rather than accuracy being
of primary Importance on long ex-
ploration flight in the Antarctic. 1t
was for this reason that the decision
was made to make an oblique mapping
| instead of q vertical one. Civilization
| is, at the present time, much more con-
cerned with whether there is land or
not and the details of the land, if any,
than with the exact location of certain
peak. Accuracy was, of course, of great
| importance. Every effort, therefore,
| was made to add to the accuracy of the
| oblique maps. While navigation served
as the main control, ground controls
| were relied upon when available.
A Network Of Control Points.
On the Bay of Whales, where our
| base was, very accurate network OF
| control points was obtained. Likewise.
| the first $50 miles of the polar flight
were controlled by data obtained by our
geological party. We were also fortunate
| in having many we'll known points in
the Rockefeller Range. Oblique photo
graphs were taken at predetermined
angle from the horizontal. This known
factor will prove useful when the horl-
ION does not show on the photograph.
| The elevation was recorded and, with
the known factor, the focal length OF
the lens, reasonably accurate measure
ments can be taken from the photo
| graphs.
Seven flights, during which aerial
| mapping was done, were made during
our stay in the Antarctic. The two
| outstanding flights were the polar flight
and the eastern fight. During the polar
| flight oblique photographs were taken
at 20 degrees from the horizontal, using
a 9la-inch focal length lens. The fight
resulted in q strip or Photographic
panorama over stretch about 800 miles
long.
Average Width $50 Miles.
The pictures were taken while we were
! going to the Pole and returning to Lit
| tie America, and the width Of the
ground covered varies according to the
elevations of the airplane above the
| surface. The average width covered by
the strip map will be approximately $50
miles on this flight. Five rolls Of aerial
| film IS feet long and inches wide were
used during the polar trip; that is to
| say, about $50 8 by pictures were
| taken.
| While a great part of the area COW
cred was fat, white and uninteresting.
| the photographs taken as We crossed
| over the mountains make beautiful
views as well as good mapping photo
| graphs. The most difficult part of the
| flight, from a mapping point of view,
| was involved in the necessary and con-
| tinual change of elevation Of the air.
| plane above the surface. There was, OF
| course, a rapid rise in elevation when
| the Queen Maud Range was reached
| At this point the mountains rise from
| practically sea level to $4,000 feet, the
| elevation of the Polar Plateau itself be-
| ing on the average more than 5000
/ feet. AS before mentioned, we were very
fortunate in having the first $50 miles
of flight control by ground operations.
For the remaining distance We had to
rely on navigation and Amundsen's
records.
Maps of the Coast Line.
On the eastern flight, mapping pho
tographs were made Of some 400 miles
of coast line, starting at Little America
and going northeast. The photographs
on this flight also include the new
mountains discovered by Admiral Byrd
in Marie Byrd Land. From the Scien-
lists and explorers point OF view this
fight is equal i'll value to any made in
the Antarctic.
A flight also was made to Discovery
Inlet, distance of about 80 miles, and
thus the length of the coast line mapped
by photography was in all about 500
miles. From Discovery Inlet we turned
south and flew inland for 100 miles. At
first it was decided to make a vertical
map of the Bay Of Whales. We made
such a map of the coast line of the bay,
but so much interesting area remained
unmapped that I finally concluded to
cover an area of 800 square miles of
obliques. This should prove very ac-
curate map, due to the number OF
ground observations made in that Vi
entity.
When Quin Blackburn and DR.
Francis Conan spent several months
obtaining control for this survey at the
most important points, celestial obser-
vations were made, giving us not only
secondly but primary control. By
making a map as accurately as possible
. of the Bay of Whales a record of that
vicinity has been obtained which will
make 1t possible for a future expedition
! to determine the amount of movement
and change in the ice in that part OF
the Antarctic continent.
Ice Conditions Are Recorded.
: Several Photographic flights were
made to record the ice conditions, such
as the Barrier edge, bay ice, unusual
pressure ice and crevice regions. These
. flights were usually made in the vicinity
: of Little America, but often under try
5 ing conditions, rs we were seldom over
} a landing field.
i The last Photographic flight of the
season was with Prof. Gould, the expe-
: dition's geoloxsst. We covered about
p 4 , -