MacMillan's Frustration

"An unusually late spring has resulted in bays being frozen over which by past experience I confidently believed would be free of ice. Our work has been delayed for two weeks. This coupled with the resulting handicap to airplane performance has resulted in completely frustrating our plans."

It was the explanation of Donald B. MacMillan, a soundly sensible man who had seen many a grim month in the Artie. "Commander Byrd wished to make one more flight," he continued. "I admire his courage."

But the U. S. Navy Department, following experienced judgment forbids further flights out of Etah, Greenland, by the amphibian planes it had detailed to cooperate with Exporer MacMillan in his search for the Fabulous continent, "Crocker Land," which Admiral Peary thought he saw looming up west of craggy Cape Hubbard. (TIME, June 22, et seq.)

Thus, last week, ended a third effort to explore the top of the world in heavier-than-air craft.* In other radio messages to the National Geographic Society (his sponsor), Commander MacMillan detailed his plans for retreating down the Greenland coast in advance of the winter ice-floes already making in Smith Sound. At every step, the Far North had rebuked the trespassers with unusually inclement weather. In July, ice-floes delayed the Bowdoin and Peary as far south as Battle Harbor, Labrador. When they reached Etah, they found that heavy winter storms had pared down the beach and piled it with boulders until it was impossible for the planes to take off from land. This cut down their cruising radius from 1,000 to 700 mi. and made necessary a food and fuel way-station betwen Etah and Axel-Heiberg Land. During the past fortnight the planes scoured Ellesmere Land for a safe site and thought to have found one in Flagler Fjord. They left some fuel and oil, flew back to camp for more, returned and found a grinding field of ice had taken possession. More hunting in and out of that dangerous, glacier-hung shore and they put down another depot in Sawyer Bay. Same result. After deciding to give up the Cape Hubbard flight and turn to other objectives of the expedition,

MacMillan expressed his opinion, which echoed Explorer Amundsen's that the only practical vehicle for aerial polar exploration is the dirigible.

The Net. So much has the Mac-Millan-Byrd expedition accomplished:

1) Further demonstration of the possibilities of traversing the arctic by air, covering in a few hours distances it formerly took weeks for men and dogs to go, yet increasing the data of difficulties in the way of a short America-to-Europe airplane route via the Pole.

2) Testing of radio and solar compasses.

3) Demonstration of the feasibility and advisability of taking radio equipment into the North, and of the efficiency of short-wave sets in overcoming the belt of static that affects long-wave communication from within the Arctic Circle.

4) Accumulation of new technical data on Smith Sound, Ellesmere Island and Grinnell Land for subsequent attempts to explore the Polar Sea.

So much does the expedition hope to accomplish before returning next month to Maine:

1) Erasing from the map unexplored areas of Greenland, Baffin Island and Labrador. This was to be accomplished largely by aerial photography and cartography.

2) Collection of unfamiliar Baffin flora and fauna, for example, evidence that the inner lakes of that large island are the undiscovered nesting haunts of the rare blue goose.

3) Comparison of ancient Norse setlements in Greenland, Disko Island and in unvisited parts of Labrador, to establish the fact of communication between the old world and the new before 1,000 A. D.

-No. 1--Roald Amundsen, of Norway, from Alaska, 1923. No. 2--Roald Amundsen, from Spitzbergen, 1925 (TIME, June 1 et seq.). One balloon trip to the North Pole has been attempted, that of S. A. Andree, Swedish aeronaut, who arose from Danes Island, Spitzbergen, in July, 1897. He and his comrades floated off northerly, steering themselves after a fashion by heavy guide ropes dragging on the ice. The last heard of them was a buoyed message dropped the night of their take-off from an altitude of 800 ft. at 82 deg. N. 25 deg. E., only a few miles away north of their base.