Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-23

one had hitherto penetrated, for al
though there have been many ships in
Discovery Inlet and in the Bay Of
Whales nobody had gone inland be-
tween these two points.
His first real exploration flight was to
the northeast in the hope Of reaching
land north of King Edward VII Land,
the land which holds In the great curv-
ing ice sheet to the north and west.
That he'd always been one of his major
detectives. After passing the Scott
Nunataks, however, he found low clouds
barring his passage and was forced to
turn south.
Even at that time. however, he
thought he saw clouds around the peak
Of q distant mountain to the northeast,
although he was not sure that 1t was
not a mirage or mere cloud bank such
as deceive the eye in polar regions
But shortly after he turned south he
saw rising before him the tops Of
new mountain range which began about
curves south and west in the shape OF q
crescent. This was the Rockefeller
Range.
A second time, on February Is, he
tried to penetrate to the mystery in
the northeast, flying this time with two
planes, the Fairchild and the Fokker,
but again was turned back by thick
weather. On turning south, however,
he saw q mountain to the east beyond
the Rockefellers and other signs of land
in an area he named Marie Byrd Land.
He kept on to the south far beyond the
point reached on the former Night and
saw what he believed to be rising
barrier, indicating land 1t was for
this reason that he was inclined to
| believe that on the flights south he
would confirm Amundsen's appearance
of land at about 81 degrees south.
That ended the exploration flying for
the season, although Capt. Mckinley
made a surveying flight to the Rookie
Teller Range and mapped these noun
! tains. Later DR.. Gould few over there
| in the Inflated Fokker, and by means
Of observations on the ground definitely
| located the range and also obtained
some geological specimens which indi-
Gated to him that the mountains were
formed of material similar to the low
| lying Alexandra Range, further north.
1t was on this trip that the Fokker was
destroyed in q terrific storm and
Admiral Byrd rescued the stranded
geological party by q dangerous flight
late in the season.
Area Named for Capt. Scott.
The area between King Edward VII
Land and latitude 80 degrees 80 minutes
south, west of the 150th meridian,
which marks the boundary of the Ross
Dependency, was named for Capt.
Robert Falcon Scott.
The first flying this season was
directed toward the Pole, as that was
the most difficult from a fight stand
point because of the distance to be
covered and the altitude at which the
plane would have to ny to pass over
| the Polar Plateau 1t was preceded by q
base-laying flight on November IL to
the Queen Maud Range, for 1t was
found that the load limit imposed by
altitude would make 1t necessary to
refuel the plane at the mountains on
the return flight.
On this trip 1t was hoped that view
of the land supposed to lie east of the
! trail in latitude 81 degrees south would
be seen, and that a view would be
obtained of Carmen Land Much to
Admiral Byrd's surprise, not only did he
| not see the two mountains which
Amundsen reported having seen in
latitude 50, but there was also no sign
Of Carmen Land. High-preSsure ridges
running out into the Barrier from the
foot of the Queen Maud Range were
traced far to the east, and 1t was
suspected that in poor visibility this
pressure had formerly been. mistaken
for land.
A base was established to the west
of Axel Heiberg Glacier, about f1ve
miles north of a mountain, which, de-
| spite its size, was only one of the
! foothills Of the mighty range behind
1t, and fuel and food were left there.
On the way home Noss of fuel from
a number of causes compelled a forced
landing on rough surface just north
of the pressure ridges at 81 degrees
10 minutes south. The plane In camp
was flown out to the larger ship with
gasoline, and after two trips the big
ship was again started and reached its
home field at midnight on the goth.
1t was on this flight that Admiral Byrd
saw the mountains which he named the
Charles Bob Mountains.
| The polar flight was started in the
| afternoon Of November 20 and the Pole
| was reached after midnight. The route
south was up Liv Glacier to the right
Of Axel Heiberg, and the plane barely
forced its way over the top of the
pass after food had been thrown over
board to tighten it. From there the
route lay straight to the Pole, and after
1t had been reached the plane flew on
a course that would insure passing close
! 10 the Pole before turning and heading
for home. In returning it passed over
the Axel Heiberg Glacier and reached
/ the Ross Barrier, where it landed at
the mountain base and refueled. An
| hour was spent there and the plane
returned to Little America after II hours
and 80 minutes in the air.
Able to See Far to East.
The non-existence of Carmen Land
was confirmed on this flight and the
visibility was so good that Admiral Byrd
| was able to see far to the eastward.
On the Polar Plateau he found that the
| Queen Maud Range was much more
broken up than had been assumed. He
also saw a new mountain range on
the plateau running approximately from
latitude IS degrees 80 minutes south
and longitude 178 east to latitude 81
degrees is minutes, longitude TT east.
This mountain range is west of a small
range already on the charts between
the trails OF Amundsen and Scott. All
positions given are approximate and
| Will be more definitely located when the
charts are made.
The next long flight and perhaps
the most important fight made, was
when new mountain range, high and
running for at least $50 miles before
It vanished In the southeast, was found.
/ It apparently forms the eastern side of
the Ross Sea, corresponding to the great
mountain ranges on the west side of
Cnc sea 80 Tar as their southern end
could be observed, they ran from lati-
tude 70 south and longitude 146 west to
latitude ~ degrees is minutes, and
longitude l43 degrees 20 minutes west.
Admiral Byrd few first to the SCOTS
Nunataka at the western end of the
Alexandra Range. then across Biscoe
Bay and on to point parallel with the
mountains and outside the coast line so
that the coast and some of the shelf ice
with ice islands could be surveyed with
the aerial camera as we'll as the range
| itself. He turned east to a point about
| so miles south of the northern end of