SOME GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS OF THE BYRD 

 ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION ^ 



By Laurence M. Gould 

 University of Michigcm 



[Witli 9 plates] 



During the course of my duties as geographer and geologist of the 

 Byrd Antarctic expedition I had the opportunity to make a special 

 study of three major features — the Rockefeller Mountains, the seg- 

 ment of the Queen Maud Mountains charted by the geological 

 party, and the Ross Shelf Ice. It is with these features that we are 

 here concerned/ 



THE ROCKEFELLER MOUNTAINS 



Of necessity the major part of the expedition's first summer in 

 the Antarctic was consumed by the business of establishing perma- 

 nent quarters — Little America. Commander (now Rear Admiral) 

 Byrd did, however, find time to make a number of flights eastward 

 over and beyond King Edward VII Land. On the first of the flights, 

 January 27, 1929, he discovered a new range, which he named the 

 Rockefeller Mountains. In view of the fact that hitherto the only 

 known land in this sector of the Antarctic was the scattered group 

 of low-ljang peaks known as the Alexandra Mountains, this discovery 

 was of potential importance, and it was most desirable to make of it 

 at least a brief reconnaisance during our first summer. Unfortunately 

 the season had become rather far advanced before it w^as practicable 

 to undertake this venture. On March 7 Bernt Balchen, Harold June, 

 and I took off for the mountains. After a flight of 2 hours and 10 

 minutes in a direction a little north of east and against a fairly strong 

 head wind we landed near the southern extremity of the group. 

 We were out early in the morning ; but the wind began to rise as the 

 day drew on, and about noon we had to stop our surveying. A lull in 



' Copyright, 1931, by the Americau Geographical Society of New York. Keprintod by 

 permission from the Geographical Review, vol. 21, No. 2, April, 1931. 



-For a general summary of the worlc of the expedition, see Joerg, W. L. G. : The Work 

 of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition 1928-1930, American Geographical Society, 1930. Also 

 idem, Brief History of Polar Exploration Since the Introduction of Plying, Amer. Geogr. 

 Soc. Special Publ. No. 11, 2d ed., pp. 11-20, 1930. 



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