ANTARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION—RONNE 387 
Mountains and then connect this with the Robert English Coast. 
These areas had not been previously photographed with trimetrogon 
cameras, though Eklund and I had established the ground control 
points in 1940. In spite of the fuel shortage, which was now becoming 
acute, we managed to fill the Beechcraft’s fuel tanks with high-octane 
gasoline for a last flight. 
On December 23, for the third consecutive day, the weather was 
excellent, with ceiling and visibility unlimited. We flew south past 
Mount Edgell, at the entrance to George VI Sound, and followed the 
sound to the Batterbee Mountains, where I saw and named the 8,500- 
foot Mount Ward. Mount Russell Owen, Gutenko Mountains, and 
Mount Coman were well defined above the Palmer Peninsula plateau. 
As we passed Margaret Goodenough Glacier, we changed course to 
250° true, to follow the trend of the Robert English Coast westward. 
We passed slightly south of Eklund Island, and farther to the north- 
west we could see where the Sound ice terminated in Ronne Bay 
(named in 1940 for my father, Martin Ronne). Isolated mountain 
peaks lay to the south. Had the weather been more favorable at the 
time of his flight in 1985, Lincoln Ellsworth would certainly have seen 
them. Beyond Ashley Snow Nunataks (three) we flew over an escarp- 
ment with exposed rock facing the northeast. Fifty miles to the south 
a snow-covered mountain rose to about 10,500 feet, Mount Rex; some 
60 miles west of it was Mount Peterson, tabular and about 9,000 feet, 
with six smaller peaks nearby. 
Due west of our turning point, 74° S., 79°35’ W., was a partly 
snow-covered mountain of more than 9,000 feet, which I named Mount 
Tuve (approximately 74°30’ S., 88° W.), another, to the northwest, 
Mount Combs. At the turning point the radio altimeter recorded a 
surface elevation of 3,100 feet above sea level, which was later checked 
on the ground. The surface appeared level and uncrevassed, and we 
decided to land. The plane taxied smoothly along the soft snow. 
The line of position I obtained from sun shots upon landing, when 
correlated with the fixes I obtained on my 1940 sledge journey over 
some of this area, will provide ground control for the photographs we 
took. Twelve minutes later we were again in the air, following a 
course directly toward the main base. We reached Alexander I Island 
20 miles to the west of the termination of the shelf ice of George VI 
Sound in Ronne Bay. In 71°S., 70° W., an impressive snow-covered 
range stretched in an east-west direction for about 40 miles. Sixty 
miles to the south a dark, massive range loomed majestically above the 
surrounding terrain. These two newly discovered mountain ranges 
I named respectively Colbert Range and Le May Range. 
We changed our course almost to due north, then northwestward 
across Wilkins Strait to Charcot Island. In our flight track straight 
ahead we saw the Walton Mountains, about 4,000 feet, and Mount 
