FIRST CROSSING OF ANTARCTICA— ELLSWORTH 3X9 



4, the storm held us prisoners in the camp. Our only excursions out- 

 side during the blizzard were to use the wireless three times daily and 

 to fill our bucket with snow for water. Our food ration was 34 ounces 

 a man each day, but we were not obliged to adhere to the allowance 

 as we ate only twice a day. Even then we were never very hungry. 

 In the morning we had a mug of oatmeal with chunks of bacon boiled 

 in it, milk, sugar, and oat biscuit with butter. In the evening we 

 had a mug of pemmican, oat biscuit, and butter. I thrive on this 

 simple diet, just as in 1925 with Amundsen I never grew tired of our 

 menu of hot chocolate morning and night, and pemmican at noon. 



One morning we tried unsuccessfully to start the airplane motor 

 after warming it for an hour. The situation seemed bad, for we were 

 being buried deeper and deeper in the snow. We decided that we 

 must get out of that hole irrespective of the weather ahead, and after 

 8 days in the blizzard camp we put the canvas hood over the motor 

 and placed the fire pot inside for 45 minutes, as we always did before 

 starting. Then we cranked the engine. After a couple of weak 

 turns the propeller would stop with a choke. Kenyon connected the 

 stronger radio battery to the starter and had the propeller going in 

 no time. With the plane unloaded we pulled out of the drift, loaded 

 up again, and at 19.20 on December 4 we took off into a sky which 

 was anything but promising. But we had not been flying long before 

 the horizon became clear and the sky took on a beautiful golden 

 glow. 



At 23:10 we came down to get a sight, which made Camp IV in 

 79°29' S., 153°27' W. It was a beautiful calm night, the boundless 

 snow fields sparkling Uke diamonds. There was no wind, we had 

 left the high plateau, and were only 145 miles from the Bay of Whales. 

 Once more it was good to be ahve. We were now on territory ex- 

 plored by Byrd and all we wanted was to get to our destination. 



At 09.00 on December 5 we took off and at 09.50 reached the north 

 end of Roosevelt Island, only 16 miles south of the Bay of Whales, 

 but we did not know this at the time. From the air we saw the ice- 

 free waters of Ross Sea, the goal of my 4 years of endeavor. At 10.05 

 the Polar Star slackened her speed and came gently to the snow, her 

 466 gallons of gasoline completely exhausted. Here we made Camp V. 



On December 6, we dug trenches to settle the skis in, waiting to 

 walk to Little America. On December 7, the southeast wind con- 

 tinued, with snow squalls and temperature round about freezing- 

 point. On December 8, standing on the wing of the plane and looking 

 northwest, we saw among a lot of irregular ice hummocks, that might 

 be snow-covered buildings, what Kenyon thought was a wind-generat- 

 ing tower. Was it Little America? We thought we would trek over 

 on our snowshoes, but after a 2 hour walk we appeared to be no 

 nearer and returned to the plane. 



