ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE AND RESEARCH 



leader. On January 17th they sailed eastward and 

 entered the pack, between Coats Land and Enderby 

 Land, in longitude 15° 21' E. The "Quest" pushed 

 south against heavy difficulties until February 12th 

 when they reached 69° 17' S. Here a sounding of 

 1,089 fathoms was obtained. They were unable to 

 proceed farther in their small boat and returned across 

 the Weddell Sea to South Georgia on April 6th. 



WiLKiNs, 1928-29* 



Just as the years 1841 and 1903 were wonderful years 

 in Antarctic exploration, so December 20th, 1928, was 

 the most wonderful day, for in ten hours Sir Hubert 

 Wilkins settled more problems and sketched more new 

 coast lines than any other expedition had accomplished 

 in West Antarctica. He had been twice before in Ant- 

 arctic waters, once with Cope in 1920 and again with 

 Shackleton in 1922, and was well known for his re- 

 markable flight across the North Polar region. In 

 November, 1928, he reached Deception Island on the 

 whaler "Hektoria" with two Lockheed-Vega mono- 

 planes. Lieutenant Eielson with three others consti- 

 tuted his party. They hoped to use the sea-ice of the 

 drowned crater as a runway, but it was found to be 

 abnormally thin. They therefore cleared a runway half 

 a mile long on land over the volcanic ash (see Figures 

 4 and 7). 



•* These accounts of the work accomplished by the Wilkins and 

 the Byrd expeditions are based mainly upon the articles in the 

 Geographical Reznew for April and July, 1929. See also Joerg's 

 Brief History, 1930. 



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