ANTARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION—RONNE RYWs 
ACTIVITIES AT THE ADVANCE BASE 
By this time the complement of the Cape Keeler base had increased 
to eight men: the two permanent residents, Fiske and E. A. Wood, 
and the six in the aviation group—Lassiter, Adams, William R. Latady, 
Commander Schlossbach, James B. Robertson, and myself. The tents 
had originally been pitched on the surface, but heavy drifts soon 
snowed them over. A series of interconnecting tunnels were dug to 
facilitate our life underground. 
On their way south the four men of the Joint British-American 
Weddell Coast sledge party stayed at Cape Keeler for 2 days to rest 
their dogs. In 2 weeks they had sledged 150 miles over the plateau. 
The heavy overcast weather still continued. It seemed as if we 
should be marooned forever in this ‘‘hellhole”’ of the Antarctic. Our 
camp was just 3 miles north of Cape Keeler, first sighted by Sir Hubert 
Wilkins in 1928 on his flight southward. The shelf ice extending 
seaward from the cape, on which our base was located, had an eleva- 
tion of about 65 feet above sea level. To the south of the cape, heavy 
pressure areas caused by moving glaciers flowing eastward from the 
high plateau extended 5 miles seaward. On my flight eastward on 
November 7, I had observed a number of lenticular holes in the shelf 
ice and a deep trough running seaward in an east-northeasterly 
direction. The elevation of the bottom of this trough was close to 
sea level, though no sea leads could be seen in it. 
On November 20, Adams, who had just flown over from the main 
base, considered that the weather was good enough for the laying of a 
much-needed cache for the southward-traveling sledge party. Pilot- 
ing the L-5, he flew ahead to pick out a landing field for Lassiter, who 
piloted the larger Norseman, heavily loaded with supplies. After 
Adams passed Cape Hielson, he could easily identify several of the 
islands shown on the United States Hydrographic Office charts. 
They were all snow-covered except the one charted as Sharbonneau 
Island. A closer investigation disclosed that this extremely black 
rock outcrop was actually a cape, being connected with the mainland 
by a high snow-covered ridge. Following the map closely, Adams 
continued south and began searching for Darlington Island. It also 
proved to be a cape. At the same time, he discovered that Hilton 
Bay was at least 20 miles deeper than had previously been thought. 
Gruening Glacier flows eastward into it from the high plateau; to the 
south a new glacier was seen, which I named Tejas Glacier. The 
sledge party was located at Cape Knowles, and supplies were deposited 
for their use on the return journey. In overcast weather the pilots 
brought the planes in for a safe landing at the advance base. 
