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Show I V - f I OCZAV Capetown . 1 H jiwwj t ?vfv.y J J ' Croup 1 ) !PJ -wV l g&h'whiJ illllllliF eft? ' ctmmjRK$mmKD I 3y ELMO SCOTT WATSON yrA OMMANDER Richard E.Byrd has announced that he will 1 -.j-r ,, try aI t0 n's laurels as '." an explorer, gained by be-KRwsj! be-KRwsj! ing the first to fly to the rgi North pole and among the -"v-it first to make a nonstop g5?V ir flight across the Atlantic, y y w by flying over the South pole within the next two years. Not the least of the interest in this latest project of the gallant Virginian is its significance as a connecting link between be-tween Antarctic and Arctic exploration. explora-tion. The first man fo reach the South pole was Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, who achieved the goal In 1911. Last year Mr. Amundsen Amund-sen was in the party which flew a dirigible to the North pole soon after Commander Eyrd had made his epic dash there by airplane. Now Commander Com-mander Byrd is going into the regions where Amundsen won his fame sort of repaying the visit, as it were. But Commander Byrd's project is to be more than just a dash to the South pole so that he can say that he has flown "to the uttermost ends of the earth," both North and South. It is to be a scientific expedition which is expected to open an unknown un-known continent, twice the size of the United States, to the knowledge of mankind. The two explorers, Amundsen and Scott, who did reach the Pole found only a lifeless plain there. Several other explorers have skirted along the edge of the great Ice fields which surround the Antarctic Ant-arctic continent and one or two of them have penetrated it for some distance,' dis-tance,' only to lose their ships or to he frozen in for an Antarctic winter. So that today this great plateau, which has an altitude of 10,000 feet Is the modern "unknown continent," and by crossing It from coast to coast In two directions, by visiting its center and its four corners Commander Byrd hopes to discover some of its secrets. Especially does he hope to reveal the fact that there is on this continent' con-tinent' forms of animal and plant life hitherto unknown to man, and if he Is successful it is likely that the Penguin, so well known to all explorers ex-plorers in this region, will no longer be the symbol of the Antarctic, just as the polar bear is the symbol of the Arctic. "I feel certain that somewhere some-where in that vast area there are wide fetches of lowland where extreme p The Antarctic Record 8 Q Miles from Q O Tear Explorer Pole X O 1773 Cook, British 1318 X Q 1S21 Bellinghausen, Rus- Q x sian 1408 Q X 1823 Morrell, American ..1383 O O 1823 Weddell, British 1102 X Q 1S31 Bisooe, British 14-66 Q Q 1839 Knox, American 1400 Q y 1840 D'Urville, French ..1646 Q Q 1842 Ross, British 828 9 O 1S74 Nares, British 1633 q Q 189S Gerlacha, Belgian ..1828 Q Q 1900 Borchgrevlnk, Brit- Q . ish 781 Q Q 1902 Scott, British 540 S O 1903 Nordenskjold, Swed- X lsh 1673 Q 1903 Drygalskl, German.. 1624 O 8 1904 Bruce, British 1118 Q 1905 Charcot, French ....1555 X 1909 Shackleton, British . Ill Q 1911' Amundsen, Norwe- Q 8 elan Pole O 1912 Scott, British Pole Q q 1915 Shackelton, British. . 897 X O 1928 Byrd, American ....??? Q OCXXDOCOCXXXX)OCXXXXXXXXIO low temperatures do not exist, and believe be-lieve that if we are successful in finding find-ing such an area we will find a completely com-pletely new form of animal life," said Commander Byrd recently. "So far the discovery of animal life In the Antarctic has been confined to birds, fish, seals and a few species of micro scopic organisms. Inland, where the great plateaus stretch out to the pole, there is nothing. The temperature, which even in summer gets down to 30 or 40 degrees below zero and which sinks far below that in winter, is too extreme for animal life of any sort Because of the extreme temperatures tempera-tures which Commander Byrd mentions, men-tions, as well as several other factprs characteristic of that region, Antarctic Ant-arctic exploration is even more perilous per-ilous than Arctic. Among these other factors are the blizzards of high velocity which -sweep down from the plateau and these winds, laden with snow and fine particles of ice, often reach a speed of 70 miles an hour. It was in one of these blizzards that the gallant Capt Robert F. Scott lost his j life In that tragic retreat from the South pole in 1912 when he perished only eleven miles from his base and safety The Antarctic has special perils for the aviator-explorer because the wind conditions there are further complicated by numerous mountain ranges and lofty peaks, some of them as high as 16,000 feet, and two of them active volcanoes. In view of the perilous nature of this expedition, Commander Byrd is taking unusual precautions and making mak-ing the most careful preparations before be-fore setting out. It was first announced an-nounced that he would start tins fall but a later announcement imheates that the size of the expedition and the many things that must be accomplished accom-plished have made thia impossible. Commander Byrd has decided that no less than a year of forethonght and attention to minute detail will be necessary nec-essary to reduce the hazards of the trip. The general plan is to sail first to New Zealand and from there to strike out for the ice pack on the border of Ross sea. After penetrating this Ice barrier he will set up his permanent base near Discovery harbor, where he will build his houses, assemble his plane and make a number of test flights. Two planes will be taken, one large three-motor ship, capable of lifting 14,000 pounds and the other a small single-motor plane. Commander Byrd will load the smaller plane with six months' supplies of food and spare cans of oil and gasoline and fly 100 miles toward the South pole. If he finds conditions favorable he will land, set up a base, take observations and return to the home base for a second sec-ond load. Then by a series of short flights he will set down a line of emergency emer-gency bases to within 400 or 500 miles of the pole. From the last of these he will make the long flight to his goal, land if possible, and then . return. If the trip to the pole is successful and winter has not closed in, Byrd will also make flights to the southeast and southwest somewhere at the foot of the great plateau. He will also skirt the coastline, flying over thousands and thousands of square miles never before seen by man. If all of his plans are successful, for the first time In history, the great Antarctic continent will at last be charted and mapped. Although the exploring will be done mainly by the two planes, it la interesting inter-esting to note that equipment similar sim-ilar to that of previous explorers will also be taken along. On his polar flight Commander Byrd will carry a sled, pemmican to last many months, sleeping bags, oil burners, skiis and snowshoes, so that If he is forced to land and abandon the plane he will be able to trek back over the plateau to the home base. It is for this reason rea-son also that the food supplies will be planted along the route to the pole. And these are only a few of the Innumerable In-numerable details which must b thought of before the expedition iU out In this polar expedition, perhaps the most important of modern times, the margin between success and failure fail-ure will be very small. Nothing will be left to chance and if adequate preparation for every possible contingency con-tingency counts for anything the expedition ex-pedition should be successful and Commander Byrd, the first to reach the North pole by air, will also be the first to carry the Stars and Stripes to the other end of the earth. |