Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
194
and bagged. The summit was capped by 130 feet of dolerite, but a short distance below
was a shale layer chockful of plant remains. Below this the section was an alternation of
sandstone, shale, and coal. The plant fossils were later identified as Glossopteris, a seed-fern
of Permian age that was known in other Southern Hemisphere continents and in India,
and was first identified in Antarctica among the rocks collected along Beardmore Glacier
by the men of Scott's party, and carried to their death.
Blackburn handled rocks so much on the way down that his fingers became frost-
bitten through his mitts. In all he distinguished fifty separate units over more than one
thousand feet of section, and collected sixty-seven samples, although the base of the sec-
tion above the eroded granite was covered by snow at the end of the spur. The load of
rocks helped the men keep their footing on the windy ridgeline, but they were so loaded
at the bottom that they could barely walk back to camp.
The following day the men organized their gear and rested from the rigors of their
climb. Paine: “Spent day bragging + marking specimens. Temperature continues zero +
below with incessant 20-30 mile wind. Glad to leave this spot. Camp Poulter—peace we
hope tomorrow night.”
On December 12 they broke camp and started the long trek back. In a favorable po-
sition several miles along the trail they made their first stop to take triangulations that
would be the basis for the map of the Scott Glacier area (Station 2) (Fig. 6.13). With a trail-
ing wind and a gentle downgrade on the glacier, the party covered 21½ miles the first day.
The wind had blown at about twenty knots when they started, but it lessened to barely a
breeze by the time the men pitched camp abreast of Mount Grier (Station 3).
The following day was calm, and both men and dogs lounged in the warmth of the
sun. Blackburn took another round of transit readings and then a round of photos. Paine
and Russell cut each other's hair. Everyone was feeling good. From there they descended
Scott Glacier with relative ease, stopping every five to ten miles to triangulate.
On December 14 the party pulled down to its old camp on the moraine at the con-
fluence of the Scott and Robison Glaciers, where the men shot a round of bearings (Sta-
tion 4), then moved on to Station 5 and camped in a broad area of ice where Van Reeth
Glacier joins the confluence of the Scott and Robison. The next day Paine took a prime
vertical shot at about 3:45 A.M. and another at noon, and Blackburn triangulated the sur-
rounding peaks for about three hours in the morning. After noon the party left the camp
under a bitter southeast wind, but within about an hour a draft of warmer air moved up
the glacier. The solstice was approaching, and weather patterns had begun to push south
from the ice shelf, bringing warmer temperatures, stratus clouds, and surface fogs that
intermittently crept up Scott Glacier (Fig. 6.14).
That evening the party camped abreast of the blocky massif that Blackburn named
Mount Jessie O'Keefe, with “mountain after mountain and range upon range in view up
and down the valley.” Byrd later renamed the mountain Mount Blackburn, one of numer-
ous changes to the names that Blackburn and the others in the party had chosen for the
features they discovered (see Fig. 6.13). Each of the party members named a prominent
peak after a woman. Jessie O'Keefe was the woman Blackburn would marry. Katherine
Paine was Stuart's mother, but Byrd shortened the name to Mount Paine, after Stuart
himself. Mount Jane Wyatt, named for a young actress from New York City who would
Figure 6.13. (opposite) The
sketch map published
by Blackburn in 1937 in
the
Geographical Review
shows the descent route
on Thorne [
sic
] Glacier with
his numbered triangulation
stations clearly labeled.
According to the caption
to the figure, “Because of
the great wealth of mate-
rial in the form of photo-
graphs and triangulation
data furnished by the
geological party and the
fact that some features
have been identified on
the aerial photographs
taken on the South Pole
Flight of november, 1929,
the map has not yet been
completed. Pending its
completion it should be
noted that names are not
final.” In fact, the expected
map was never completed,
and a number of the names
on Blackburn's sketch
map were subsequently
changed by Byrd and the
Antarctic names Commit-
tee. Reproduced by per-
mission of the American
Geographical Society.
