376 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1949 
attempted to return to their base, lost their way in the bad weather, 
and crash-landed on the sea ice in Marguerite Bay. The three men 
were uninjured but were extremely weak from a diet of only 630 
calories a day each. 
FIELD PROGRAM BEGINS 
Bad overcast weather continued. On September 29 a short break 
permitted Lassiter to fly Walter Smith and C. O. Fiske to Cape Keeler 
to establish our second weather station and advance base (pl. 6, 
fig. 2). 
On September 28 the geological party, consisting of Dr. Robert L. 
Nichols and Robert H. T. Dodson, departed for George VI Sound and 
the Alexander I Island area. On October 9 the Joint British-American 
Weddell Coast sledge party left the main base for their long southern 
journey, with Smith joining them at Keeler operational base. 
During October the weather continued to be unsuitable for flying, 
though occasional breaks of a few hours enabled the two pilots to 
make quick gasoline-hauling trips to Cape Keeler. Often they had to 
remain there for days at a time because the rapidly deteriorating 
weather at the main base made the return trip impossible. Finally, 
on November 4, I flew over to the Cape Keeler base with Captain 
Lassiter as pilot. 
EXISTENCE OF ISLANDS OFF CAPE KEELER DISPROVED 
On the morning of November 7, with Lieutenant Adams as pilot, 
I took off in the L-5 airplane on a short exploratory flight eastward 
over the Weddell Sea. After his flight from Deception Island along 
the Weddell Coast in 1928, Sir Hubert Wilkins reported the appear- 
ance of islands due east of Cape Keeler. On a flight from the United 
States Anarctic Service east base in 1940, I also had the impression of 
seeing islands through clouds in this same general area. We now 
flew due east from Cape Keeler for 100 miles, to the edge of the Larsen 
Shelf Ice, with its sheer cliff disappearing into the blue water. The 
width of this open water was about 2 miles, and beyond it, since 
visibility was perfect, we could see at least a hundred miles of heavy 
pack ice covering the Weddell Sea to the horizon. At the barrier edge 
we turned due south and followed the ice cliff until we sighted Cape 
Eielson. At the south end of Hearst Island the barrier became lower 
and joined the sea ice without break. At no time during our 34-hour 
flight did we see signs of the reported islands. This flight, coupled 
with my observations of the cloud formations while we laid over at 
the Cape Keeler base, convinced me that on certain days clouds are 
formed over the open water to the east in such a way that they at 
times give the appearance of mountainous islands. 
