308 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



the Antarctic. Does the Andean massif which dips at MageHan 

 Straits, rises to fomi the grand mountain chain of Graham Land, 

 and dips at what is believed to be Stefansson Strait, rise again in 

 Hearst Land and continue until it joins the polar plateau and the 

 mountains of South Victoria Land; or, if it does rise in Hcai-st Land, 

 does it dip again to form a depression or a below-sea-level channel 

 connecting the Ross Sea with the Weddell Sea? 



Numerous plans and many preparations had been made to carry 

 out a trans-An tare tic joiu-ney. Shackleton in 1914 lost his ship before 

 he reached the starting point. Wilkins was foiled 2 years in succession 

 by failing to find a suitable airjjlanc field from which to start. Wat- 

 kins, after much preparation and endeavor, failed to get started from 

 England. Riiser Larsen was carried away from the barrier edge by 

 the breaking up of the ice, and did not get started on the actual 

 journey. 



By the time I was able to turn my attention to the problem, a great 

 advance had been made in the machinery for aerial transportation, 

 and I believed that it was no longer necessary to risk the lives of 

 many men who by their sheer physical endeavor would fight their 

 way slowly through storms, starvation, blizzards, and snow blind- 

 ness, struggUng for many weeks against tremendous odds across what 

 might prove to be a monotonous stretch of sastrugi-featured snow: 

 or, if mountains were found to exist between the Weddell Sea and the 

 Ross Sea, find themselves in a maze of overhanging glaciers, steep- 

 sided valleys, and faced with unscalable cliffs such as could be seen 

 in Graham Land. 



I myself would have preferred to have been with the vanguard of 

 polar explorers, and am happy in the knowledge that neither the 

 North Pole nor the South Pole were first humbled by conquest by 

 airplanes. Nevertheless, it would not do for us to lag behind the 

 times. Change is the law of the world itself. 



The hills arc shadows, and the}' flow 

 From form to form, and nothing stands. 



says Tennyson. And so our method of approaching the mystery and 

 romance of Nature's last stronghold against man's invasion had to 

 change. 



My own experience with airplanes in high latitudes had given me 

 some knowledge of the possibilities of aircraft in polar conditions. I 

 knew that low temperatures would not be a great obstacle to fhght. 

 I had experienced the fact of landing far from my base and setting 

 out again for a safe retui-n. I knew that aircraft engines in 1932 were 

 reliable for many hours' service without overhaul, and I had studied 

 carefully the Antarctic conditions as far as they might affect the use 

 of the airplane. 



