Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
153
would be laid for the geological party; the glacier surface, however, appeared too rough
in the reflected sun, so the plane flew to the mouth of Liv Glacier, where a relatively
smooth snow surface was picked for a touchdown. Dean Smith eased the Floyd Bennett
onto the sharp-edged sastrugi. While he kept the engines turning, Byrd, McKinley, and
Harold June built a snow cairn and laid the depot. Then the plane took oV and headed
east along the front of the Queen Maud Mountains, McKinley photographing the face
of the mountains as they went. Byrd's intention was to fly at least one hundred miles to
the east to investigate Carmen Land; but no sooner had they started than June realized
that the fuel tanks were alarmingly low. The chewing gum and tape that had been used
at the beginning of the trip to stop a leak in one of the hand fuel pumps apparently had
not held, forcing an immediate turn toward Little America. It was not until three days
later that the geological party learned from the radio that the plane had run empty eighty
miles short of Little America, where it landed safely and subsequently was refueled by one
of the other planes.
The geological party pushed forward under marginal weather. On November 26 land
appeared to the southwest, and by evening the men had spotted Mount Fridtjof Nan-
sen to the south. As the party continued, it steered toward a large gap in the mountains,
which at first they took to be Axel Heiberg Glacier but which later proved to be the Liv.
The polar flight was delayed for more than a week by poor weather, either at Little
America or on the ice shelf. Finally, on November 28, Goodale radioed Little America
that weather was fair and clear. The pole party took oV in the Floyd Bennett that after-
noon with the men in their places: Bernt Balchen, pilot; Harold June, copilot; Ashley
McKinley, mechanic and aerial photographer; and Byrd, navigator. The geological party
made camp and monitored the radio in case of emergency. At 8:15 P.M. the plane spotted
the ground party, “a cluster of little beetles,” and dropped them another packet of mes-
sages and letters, along with some film and aerial photographs of the mountains shot by
McKinley on the depot-laying flight.
They completed the polar flight, though not without travail, for as the crew flew up
Liv Glacier (see Figs. 5.4, 5.9), its chosen route through the mountains, it fought a strong
downdraft from the plateau and a ground surface rising faster than the plane. Only after
scuttling 250 pounds of survival food could the plane gain the altitude to clear the rising
surface with little room to spare.
Throughout the passage of Liv Glacier, McKinley recorded the mountains and gla-
ciers out the left (east) side of the plane with still photography and motion pictures. In
the stretch passing Mount Fridtjof Nansen, the plane was well below the summit of that
towering block. Byrd described the scene to port as they emerged over the headreach of
Liv Glacier: “A whole chain of mountains began to parade across the eastern horizon.
How high they are I cannot say, but surely many of them must be in excess of 15,000 feet,
to stand so boldly above the rim of the 10,000 foot plateau. Peak on peak, ridge on ridge,
draped in snow garments which brilliantly reflected the sun, they extended in a solid ar-
ray to the southeast.” These were the mountains mapped by Amundsen as trending in a
straight line to the southeast, aYrmed now by aerial observation, although they appeared
not to extend beyond 87° S. McKinley photographed an overlapping set of oblique shots
of these mountains from which triangulations were later made.
