Science: Northward, Ho!

On the “upper” hemisphere of our earth, north of Siberia and Alaska, northwest of Axel Heiberg Land and northeast of Lenin Land (formerly Nicholas II Land), lies a vast area incognita. No one knows if it is aqua incognita or terra incognita. It seems important to find out, not merely to satisfy human curiosity, but because, with aviation advancing, a nation finding land there might have an air base, for purposes military or commercial, within 24 hours’ flight of nearly all cities in the Northern Hemisphere.

Explorers MacMillan and Amundsen having failed to settle the question by their flights last year, the 1926 explorers are already afield. Despatches from the snow motors division of the expedition financed by the Detroit Chamber of Commerce (TIME, Jan. 4) reported within the fortnight the breakdown of two “iron malamutes” (tractors). Husky-dogs have been substituted to freight supplies to Point Barrow, where Captain George Wilkins will arrive in April with his pilots and two Fokker planes. One pilot, Lieutenant Carl B. Eielson has flown over 60,000 miles all alone in the Alaskan airmail service between Fairbanks and McGrath. These men intend heading north and northwest from Point Barrow, exploring the “blind-spot,” passing over the Pole and on down the other side of the world to Spitzbergen.

At least three other expeditions plan to see the “blindspot” from heavier-than-air machines. Explorers Donald B. MacMillan and Roald Amundsen have both warned against the use of planes, the Yankee agreeing with the Norseman, in view of similar experiences, that dirigibles are safer. Amundsen is going this year in the Italian-built dirigible Norge, which spent the fortnight undergoing tests at Rome. As he left the U. S. last week, Amundsen gave the airplanes one chance of success in 1,500; felt his one chance was 100% good on a 50-hour dirigible flight.

The French have planned a compromise type of expedition, using motor sledges in co-operation with collapsible amphibian planes. Their sledges differ from the caterpillar-tread ones that failed Wilkins, having suction-grip rubber “paws” on a traction wheel extended in front of the sled-runners.

The following table, compiled from reports of recent weeks, indicates how populous a place the Arctic Circle will be this summer. It shows ten known expeditions and one more rumored. Five nations are represented: the U. S., France, Norway, Italy, Russia. All these traveling by air will be in search of a hypothetical continent or large island. Six parties mean to visit the Pole.