THE CLOSING OF THE STATION 



throughout the year. It is for this reason that in 

 just two years no less than 776 ascents have been 

 made with pilot balloons, whose paths have been 

 followed to an average altitude of about four miles, 

 though exceptional runs were made to sixteen and 

 nineteen miles, and to distances of as much as 

 thirty miles. At the station on the Maligiakf jord 

 occupied in the summer of 1926, 94 balloon runs 

 were made. 



Because of the local protection from those cy- 

 clones which move up Davis Strait and give up 

 their moisture before arriving in the hinterland. 

 Mount Evans possesses unique advantages for a 

 flying base on the route from America to Europe. 

 The width of the single span from coast to coast 

 across the Atlantic is so great that for present- 

 day planes all available loads must be given over 

 to fuel and crew. No reserve is left for the pay 

 load which is necessary to make such flights com- 

 mercially profitable. For the northern route over 

 Greenland such is by no means the case. By this 

 northern route an excessively long hop of nearly 

 4,000 miles is broken up into a number of moderate 

 to short ones, the longest less than 1000 miles, 

 and the longest continuous one over the sea only 

 about 800 miles. This route brings the Great 

 Lakes cities almost as near to Europe as New 



359 



