Polar Pilgrims

Wilkins. The silence that shut down upon the ether of northern Alaska after a last "All's well" from the monoplane Alaskan as she winged away from Fairbanks on her third flight from there to Point Barrow, continued all last week, stretching into nine days. Major Lanphier, second-in-command of the Detroit Arctic Expedition, rushed repairs on the big trimotored biplane Detroiter. He took the air in search of the missing plane but was soon forced back by motor trouble. His last orders from Captain Wilkins had been to pick up and move their base from Fairbanks to Barrow as soon as possible and to come searching for him and Pilot Ben Eielson if their radio stayed unheard.

Nine days was a long time for two men and an airplane to be missing in the Arctic, but there were comforting considerations. Wilkins had had a bad wrist and would not, in all likelihood, have attempted to penetrate the Polar Basin contrary to his announced plan. "Sandy" Smith, chief of the overland party of the expedition, having reached the seacoast on his way to Barrow, flashed word that Eskimos at Thetis Island, 100 mi. southeast of Barrow had seen the Alaskan pass over, presumably on its most recent trip.

Amundsen. While their airship Norge gathered her strength at Leningrad for the hop from Europe to Spitzbergen, Explorers Amundsen and Ellsworth disembarked from their steamer in ice-choked Kings Bay and set about unloading a cargo of hydrogen gas, food, and other materials. A mooring mast was standing, and a hangar going up, to receive the Norge, which was expected very shortly with her crew of 16 men and one terrier-mascot.