Evening star., 1947-02-07
Henry
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be planted about quarter mile
apart to guide possible rescue
parties.
(This is Capt. Boyd's third
Antarctic expedition. He was a
mechanic with Admiral Byrd's
second expedition in 1888, and
was a master mechanic of the
Antarctic Services party of the
Interior Department in 1939-40.
Gle enlisted in the Navy in 1927
and still was in naval service in
1888, returning to civil status
after his return from the Ant
arctic. He entered the Marine
Corps as a first lieutenant in
July, 1943, and was promoted to
captain in August, 1945)
AS the expedition departed, men,
bers of the polar party learned that
the japanese are making silk out
of whale meat.
An attempt to develop this in
dustry is believed to be one reason
for the presence of two Japanese
whalers in the Antarctic, by special
permission of Allied authorities. The
ships have been in daily contact
with this expedition since crossing
the Antarctic Circle.
The Japanese are said to have
succeeded in converting whale meat
into silk before the war. Fibers are
obtained by means of a process
somewhat similar to one discovered
in America, by means of which
chicken feathers and egg whites
have been converted into textiles.
Except for the japanese ships,
this expedition appears completely
alone. The announced Russian and
combined British Norwegian scien-
tific parties have remained COM
pletely hidden in white fog and have
maintained absolute radio silence.
The only other ships expected are
Chilean, now reported on their way
across the circle.
Major Discovery Made.
An ice-walled, open water sea
more than $4,000 square miles in
area and reaching about 200 miles
into the interior of the Antarctic
continent, covering much of an area
marked on all maps as occupied by
high mountains, has been discovered
by this expedition.
This great indentation, one of the
most important bodies of water in
the Antarctic region, is regarded as
d major geographical discovery. In
shape, the new sea Is approximately
square, being 100 miles from east to
west. It breaks into a 100-foot high
ice-wall marking the southern coast
Of the Franklin Roosevelt Sea, 100
to 125 degrees west longitude and
10 to IS degrees soHth latitude.
The find was so important when
first described by the pilots of ex-
ploring planes that the announce
ment was withheld until verification
was made by other flights from
different directions.
Photographs showed that a great
deal of the Walter Kohler mountain
range, hitherto reported as at
about 1000 feet altitude, is under
water, probably 1000 feet deep.
Mountains do exist, but in another
location.
Weird Life Found i'm Sea.
Blackeyed transparent white heads
with tiny tails attached to them are
among the weird life forms fished
from the deep Ross sea waters. At
tached to each head are a pair of
coal black fins. The entire animal
Is about an inch long.
These are fish-although possibly
infantile types-which are found to
depths of 1000 feet. Other tiny
fish brought up in nets for collecting
plankton-the microscopic water
plant life-are inch-long eels which
appear to have no heads.
Schools of the first fish would
look like hosts Of swimming skulls
with black wings. They live in
abysmal darkness and form part OF
the food for the monster whales.
The biologists aboard are study
ing the strange patches of green ice
in the Bay of Whales. It is colored
with chlorophyll, the same pigment
found in grass and leaves which is
the corner stone of all life on earth.
They are actually "ice foliage" "
colonies of living plants which grow
in ice.
In the Ross Sea pack were found
many areas of ruddy colored ice
which microscopic study showed
were living colonies of microscopic
plants, but biologists were puzzled
over the absence of chlorophyll and
the ability OF the tiny organisms
to survive six months of total dark
ness in a cake of ice.
The green patches formed by very
similar organisms indicate that
chlorophyll is formed from other
chemicals in their bodies when the
sun returns. Presumably living ice,
like deciduous forest, turns brown