Evening star., 1935-01-20
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spent four and one-half months In
solitude undergoing severe hardships.
DR.. Poulter reached him with re-
lief party irf August.
The advance base was equipped
with up-to-date apparatus for main
tanning q continuous record of wind.
temperature and pressure from the
day the base was occupied through
the Winter night and until it was
shut down, October IL. These ele-
ments, together with observations Of
auroral activity, were continuously
recorded after my arrival at the base
DIR. Poulter made a valuable series
of simultaneous meteor and auroral
observations with observers at Little
America.
On my return to Little America I
found smoothly running exploring
machine ready to prosecute the mis-
sions we had outlined for 1t. Siple's
party was about to leave for the first
scientific penetration into Marie Byrd
Land, with special interest in its
geological and biological features.
Blackburn's geological party was top
ping of preparations for @. long
thrust into the Queen Maud Range
on biological reconnaissance into
the unexplored western margin Of
Marie Byrd Land.
DR.. Bramhall and Morgan were
making the plateau party ready for
dash onto the polar plateau, the
former with the object of gathering
magnetic data in region where such
data are extremely inadequate, the
latter to delve into the secrets hidden
by glaciation with an apparatus never
before tried in the polar regions-a
seismic sounding device.
June, in tractor /, was already
coming home after a splendid thrust
to the southwestern angle of the Edsel
Ford Range, having made the sur
prising discovery of a high plateau
rising on the coast Just east of the
Rockefeller Mountains and flowing
unbrokenly through King Edward
VII, Scott and Marie Byrd Lands.
Demas was grooming two tractors
assigned to support the geological
and plateau parties, and Capt. Innes
Taylor, IN charge Of trail operations,
was everywhere helpful. Pilot VIII
liam Bowlin and the men of the
aviation unit were working with per-
severance to make the planes ready
for the Spring flights.
Land Parties Leave.
The Marie Byrd Land party got
under way November 16, the geo.
logical parties left in company two
days later and the tractors, follow
ing in the wake of the latter units,
cleared Little America November Is.
We were free then to launch our
aerial enterprises.
Antarctic problems more or less
interrelated we're Immediately &C.
cessible to approach by aircraft. The
first was the problem Of the so-called
transcontinental strait. For MANY
years 1t had been supposed that an
ice-clad sea-level trough divided the
continent. This theory was postulated
upon the identical indentations cut
IN the face Of the continent by the
Ross and Weddell Seas, and upon
other persuasive evidence. Until the
existence or non-existence of this
strait was affirmed. no one studying
Antarctica could say with certainty
whether he had to deal with one
continent or two.
The second problem grew more or
less out Of our operations in 1929.
On a fight to the northeast Decem-
ber 5 Of that year we discovered east
OF the 150th meridian the new land
which we named Marie Byrd Land.
It Is rugged and mountainous land.
heavily glaciated. Behind the west
ern 'front.' range we saw innumerable
peaks. On the journey in Tractor l
June and his companions reached
Mount Grace Mckinley, the south
western peak in the Edsel Ford
Range. They confirmed the massing
Of peaks in the northeastern quadrant
and found that the plateau rolled to
the east.
New Problems Arise.
The Marie Byrd Land problem
opened up fascinating possibilities:
How far eastward did these noun
tains trend? Did they form a
tectonic link in the Andean fold chain
which had been traced to Graham
Land across the continent? Did this
plateau fold southwark to the Queen
Maud Range, to emerge with the high
polar plateau, or did it die out some
where, say on the northern margin
OF the transcontinental strait? These
problems we hoped to solve by
series Of flights calculated to strike
at strategic points.
In the Air.
Seizing upon the first break In the
weather, we launched the first flight
November Is. The course we new
followed the structure of a scalene