Jumble

"All well. I estimate that we are at seven whurp zzuldung whooltcrazzptlin or thereabouts. My guess is a slult whish as that zzzzsock blatz ug still clear notle deglup at that squarbritedul country blzylttle whurp phoollb zzwhiee crackzpst. Little or no wind."

Fortnight ago, when this garbled radio message from Flyer Lincoln Ellsworth, far out over Antarctica, was followed only by complete jumble and then silence, Sir Hubert Wilkins and the rest of the expedition on the base ship Wyatt Earp at Dundee Island at first refused to be upset. In a wireless dispatch to the New York Times and the North American Newspaper Alliance, Sir Hubert guessed that the explorer and his one companion, Pilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon, had "decided to land for the night." Next day, with still no word from the pair, the expedition began to fret. By last week, after nine days of silence, their fretting had become acute worry. Still pooh-poohing in print all fears for the flyers' safety, they set out gropingly to the rescue.

Admiral Byrd's principal rival in Antarctica, Explorer Ellsworth, 55, has been distinguished less for his success in exploring it than for his personal modesty and his willingness to finance his expeditions from his own capacious pocket. Eager to make the first crossing of Antarctica, he was forced back twice before he finally got away permanently in his Northrup monoplane Polar Star. Then he took off from Dundee Island, due south of Cape Horn, headed in a straight line toward Little America, 2,100 miles away and southeast of New Zealand. Passing within 600 miles of the South Pole, the course lay for the greater part over unknown terrain, possibly mountainous, possibly only tumbled ice fields. On this dangerous trip, the flyers took eight weeks' supply of food, a small sled to carry it on in case of emergency. This emergency apparently took place about half way through the flight, when communications ceased. If such was the case, the flyers may be trudging northward toward the coast, hoping to be picked up. In the event that nothing is wrong except the radio, the plane may be resting at Little America, where Admiral Byrd cached 500 gallons of gasoline. Working on these two theories, the Wyatt Earp last week plowed back toward Magallanes, Chile, to pick up another airplane. Then it will return to Antarctica, skirt the Graham Islands until it approaches Charcot Island, then follow the coast past Mt. Mabelle Sidley, and Mt. Grace McKinley. At each of these points the rescue plane will drop caches of food by parachute according to instructions left behind by Flyer Ellsworth. That done, the ship will push on to the Ross Sea, hoping to find the lost pair a month hence safely ensconced at Little America after all.

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