ANTARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION—RONNE 383 
cameras systematically photographing the terrain below. Our flight 
track was farther inland than before, in order that he might obtain 
an additional set of overlapping pictures. The terrain beneath us 
was highly mountainous, and in places the sea ice came close to its 
rugged side. The 20-mile-wide belt of sea ice stretched south along 
the coast for 350 miles, to the great shelf ice. Numerous sea leads 
ran from the open water toward the mountainous coast, and fre- 
quently I detected seals sunning themselves on the ice. 
After a 2%-hour flight from Keeler, the Beechcraft landed at 2:55 
p. m. off the northernmost headland of Wright Inlet, which I desig- 
nated Cape Wheeler. About 20 minutes later Adams circled overhead 
for a landing. The joint British-American Weddell Coast sledge 
party had reached Wright Inlet and re-formed as the Ronne Weddell 
Coast party. My intention was to have them stand by with Adams 
in the Norseman to guard our flight. 
Two drums of gasoline were pumped into the Beechcraft’s tanks, 
our emergency gear was checked, and the trimetrogon film was made 
ready for reloading the three cameras at intervals during the flight. 
As the weather ahead looked perfect, I decided to start at once. We 
experienced no difficulty in taking off from the sea ice where the 
sledge party had made their camp. Our course was laid due south. 
We were steadily gaining altitude as we passed over Nantucket Inlet. 
Gardner Bay, with Mount Austin in the center, appeared to be about 
30 miles to the west. An hour after the take-off, as we were flying 
slightly away from the coastal trend, we suddenly saw a heavy over- 
cast obscuring the horizon to the south and southeast. We continued 
south for another 15 minutes in the hope that the visibility would 
improve, but instead it became much worse. Disappointing as it was, 
the only thing to do was to turn back to Wright Inlet and wait for more 
favorable weather, and 2 hours later we again landed alongside the 
sledge party. 
The overcast that we had met to the south moved slowly northward, 
and by morning the visibility was less than 5 miles. That day, the 
9th, the Ronne Weddell Coast party departed for the south. Their 
work was to obtain fixes of geographical features for correlation with 
the aerial photographs we had taken. The temperature remained 
about 0° F., and for 2 days a 40-mile wind swept over our small camp. 
We spent most of our restless time in sleeping bags, though we tried 
to take some soundings in a sea lead about 3 miles from the coast. 
Bottom was not reached with a 75-fathom line. On the evening of 
December 11 we saw that the southern horizon was beginning to clear. 
THE FINAL ATTEMPT 
At 3 o’clock the next morning, December 12, Adams, who had 
volunteered to keep an all-night weather watch, called Lassiter, 
