ANTARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION—RONNE 385 
return soon. Just then the engines missed for an instant, and Lassiter 
switched to a full fuel tank. Latady again dropped the American flag 
in the name of the United States, and I made this area part of Edith 
Ronne Land, which name I have given to all the newly discovered 
land from the farthest west seen on the November 21 flight to the 
farthest east seen on this flight. 
I obtained a sight with the bubble sextant, which gave me the 
approximate position of our turning point. About 12 miles from the 
edge of the shelf ice Latady obtained a reading from the radio altimeter, 
which indicated that the surface beneath us was 700 feet above sea 
level; a few minutes later another reading from the radio altimeter 
indicated that the surface was not 300 feet above sea level; and a final 
reading, at the edge, showed only 100 feet. The gradual southward 
increase in elevation of this huge ice mass was our second important 
discovery. These observations, together with the observations made 
on the November 21 flight, the obvious obstruction which accounts 
for the indentation named Gould Bay, the lines of crevasses which we 
saw at some points extending parallel with the Lassiter Shelf Ice fringe 
over a width of 15 to 20 miles inland, and the fact that as seen from 
our most southerly position, the surface of the ice seemed to rise 
steadily, leads me to believe that the Antarctic continent is a single 
unit and is not divided by a frozen body of water extending from the 
Ross Sea to the Weddell Sea. The whole area had now been covered 
where a possible strait might exist. The line of position that I obtained 
at the barrier when the sun was 90° off the plane’s heading fixed its 
location precisely. 
RETURN TO MAIN BASE 
While speeding over the shelf ice more than 900 miles away from 
our main base, we heard Kelsey come in on the radio stronger than 
ever. We also maintained contact from time to time with Cape 
Keeler and with Adams at Cape Wheeler. As we approached Mount 
Austin, the mountainous coast line loomed ahead once more, and 
Mount McElroy and Mount Nash stood well above the horizon south 
of Mount Tricorn. Latady was eager to obtain a second set of tri- 
metrogon photographs of the coast line as we continued northward, so 
we radioed Adams to take off at once for Cape Keeler. Through my 
field glasses I was able to see him taxi for a take-off as we flew over 
Mount Tricorn at 10,000 feet. Soon afterward he was lost to sight. 
When I looked southeast for the last time, I saw the 100-foot barrier 
disappear over the horizon. Behind us lay our most important dis- 
covery. We had followed for 450 miles the ice barrier that bounds the 
Weddell Sea on the south and had found that it connects with Coats 
Land at some distance south of 77°50’ S., 36° W., where Filchner found 
an ice wall in 1912. From the trend of the shelf ice as we saw it, I 
