Evening star., 1935-01-20
Copyright by Byrd Antarctic Expedition

period was a white nightmare. Men
worked until they dropped. The surg
ing out-rushes of the bay ice men
aced the ship, then the stores cached
on the ice, and finally even Little
America itself.
Still, in spite of these difficulties,
on March l we were able tc free
Capt. Innes Taylor and a southern
party of six men and five dog teams
for the vital mission Of running
chain of food depots to Lat. 1886 w.
in preparation for the major Journeys
of the Spring and to dispatch Chief
Pilot June and Demas southwark with
a fleet of four tractors carrying the
equipment and stores necessary for
the advanced meteorological base we
proposed to establish somewhere on
the Ross ice barrier and for its oc-
cupancy throughout the Winter night.
Meanwhile, under the direction of
Lieut.. Comdr. Neville, executive Of
ficer of the expedition, new city
was built around old Little America,
and, all things considered, it was really
firSt-claSs city. 1t could boast elec-
trio light and power, telephones, a
well-equipped science laboratory, a
first-claS weather observation sta
tion, radio station and broadcast
ing plant, medical facilities, machine
shop, a tailoring establishment, a car
penter shop. dairy housing three
cows and bull. and transportation
| system geared to the varying gaits
of dog teams, tractors and aircraft.
Retreat Camp Built.
Little American was strange among
the cities of the world in the diver
sification of talents enlisted among
a company of as men and in its forti-
fications against the contingencies
latent in isolation When the recession
of ice from the Bay of Whales made it
seem possible that even Little Amer
lea might break out, we built an
emergency base called Retreat Camp
on the high barrier about three-quar-
ters of a mile to the south-southeast
and stocked it with the bare essen
tials for survival.
Except for the crash and deStruc-
ton of the Fokker airplane on a
test flight and the dramatic appen-
dectomy performed on Pelter, hard
upon the alarums and excursions ex-
cited by a fire that threatened to
destroy the surgical cache, the Fall
operations closed uneventfully.
On March 20 new to the advance
base to occupy the worlds southern
most meteorological station, the oc-
cupation Of which was important to
our meteorological and auroral pro-
gram. Till then most Of the data on
which our knowledge of the meteor
ology of Antarctica is founded was
collected at stations on the coast or
by ships exploring coastal waters.
These stations naturally fell within
the moderating influence Of the ocean.
No fixed station had ever been estab-
liShed in the interior, where condt-
tions more truly characteristic OF con-
tinental meteorology would be ex-
pected to prevail.
The advance base was a shack 1913
miles by trail south of Little America.
1t was originally my hope to be able
to advance the shack nearer the foot
Of the Queen Maud Range, 400 miles
south, but the delay in discharg1ng the
ships, caused by the unusual ice con-
ditions, together with the difficulties
in re-establishing Little America, made
necessary change in this plan. New
ertheless, we determined to advance
the shack as far south as the trac-
tors could make 1t before the onset
OF Winter jeopardized the crews.
Cat the advance post Admiral Byrd
CONTINUED on Ttfth Page.l