Evening star., 1937-06-25
ARCTIC SCIENTISTS
TO CLAIM LANDS
Expedition to Study Cold Air
Currents Will Leave
Port Sunday.
BY IRA WOLFERT.

NEW YORK, June Is (NAN.A)-
The three-masted tern schooner Gen.
A. W. Greeley, fresh from the New
Soundland trade. will catch the tide
out Of Port Newark. N. J., Sunday
and bear crew OF IL men, scientists,
sailors and one Boy Scout. to . stay
OF from l8 months to 3 years in the
Arctic Circle.
An incident Of the stay, according
30 the chief Of the expedition, Clifford
J. MacGregor q United States Gov
ernment meteorologist, will be flight
70 the North Pole in an autogyro
plane with 4 cruising range of from
600 to 700 miles. Mr.. MacGregor
will radio back to The Star and the
North American Newspaper Alliance
stories Of his expedition and Polar
flight.
The purpose Of the hop to the Pole,
said MacGregor, is to map unexplored
territory between the top of the world
and Greenland and Ellsemere Land
and claim it for the United States.
In addition, Mr. MacGregor hopes to
clear up the mystery of Crockett Land,
sighted by Admiral Robert E. Peary
southwest Of the Pole.
May Have Been Mirage.
IF there is an island in the Polar
Sea so close TO the Pole" he said, Il
want to see it and locate it definitely.
Personally I have always believed
that what the admiral saw was prob
ably mirage"
However, the primary purpose Of the
expedition. for which the II men are
cutting themselves loose from civiliza-
ton and burying themselves in a
, frozen waste for period of years, Is
to study the air masses that bowl
down the polar cutters and have such
profound effects on civilizations
weather.
Air" said MacGregor, Subsidies in
the polar regions. circles about for
few weeks and then finally is forced
out by a fresh mass of air subsiding
on it. The old body of air starts
drifting down the world. and as 1t
drifts it takes on the characteristics
Of that over which it passes-the
moisture OF the Pacific or Atlantic,
the chronic snow of Greeland, the
warmth Of Summertime Canada. It
Is important to know, over stretch
Of seasons, the average temperature.
humidity, pressure, rate of movement
and other physical characteristics OF
these air masses that mold our wealth
er. In the absence of a permanent
weather bureau up there. furnishing
daily reports, carefully prepared
table OF averages will be of great ben
eft to those who chart the weather
down here"
Doubts Weather Station.
Mr.. MacGregor was asked about the
Soviet weather station at the Pole
THAT is chiefly of dramatic value"
he said. Il don't expect to find it
when I get there. They are on drift
ing ice, moving with a current. I have
seen pack ice crack up too often to
rely on it at all"
The 34-year-old meteorologist
native Of Linden. Mich. educated in
Michigan State Normal College, De-
troit Teachers College and the Uni
versity Of Washington, has spent S OF
Ills a. ycdIS Vi government service
charting weather in the northern re-
eions. In the Winter of 1928 he
was a member OF the Second Interna-
honal Polar Year Expedition. partici-
pated in by 43 nations and operating
out Of Point Barrow, Alaska
Among the members of his expedi-
tion will be Lieut.. Comdr. l. Schloss-
bach, U. S. N, retired, who will serve
as pilot and navigator and accom-
pany Mr.. MacGregor on the flight
to the Pole; Roy Fitzsimmons,
magnetologist; Francis Lawrence, an
aerologist; Robert Ingalls,, assistant
aerologist, who has attained the status
OF life scout; A. G. Sayre, radio en-
sineer, and M. Weiner, photographer.
The base will be Fort Conger a
huddle of frame houses built and oc-
eupied by Gen. A. w. Greeley in the
Winter OF 1928, and since then
= musk-ox and polar bear retreat.
Fort Conger is 500 miles from the
North Pole and $50 miles from the
nearest Eskimo village
tcepyrisht. 1887, by the North American
Newspaper Alliance 1nc)