Balked by Ice

When Lieut. Leigh Wade and Sgt. H. H. Ogden greeted their commander, Lieut. Smith, at Reykjavik, quaint Iceland town, Smith murmured a few words of sympathy to the men whom, he had last seen drifting helplessly at sea (TIME, Aug. 11). Wade, still grieving at the loss of his ship and at being out of the glorious adventure so near the goal, burst into uncontrollable tears. With difficulty his comrades quieted him, cheered !him further with the news that by express command of the Chief of Air Service himself, a new Douglas World Cruiser was on its way to Pictou, Nova Scotia. Here Wade will rejoin the flight and sail triumphantly home with his comrades.

But, perhaps, none of them will sail triumphantly home.

Greenland is in some respects one of the most mysterious regions of the world. Vast in size, having a territory perhaps one third as great as that of the U. S., it is inhabited by only about 14,000 Esquimaux. The Danes, who rule the Island, forbid the entry of all other men, knowing the deadly influence of whites upon these savages. Besides, it is doubtful if anyone would journey to Greenland with a view to settling there, even if the Danes would permit it. Greenland is 4,000 to 5,000 feet high throughout, rocky, craggy, eternally covered with several hundred feet of snow. A few tiny ports and harbors on the lower coast levels are open part of the year, a couple of months at most. This year the weather has been most unfavorable; a frozen and drifting sea, for a width of 30 miles, now guards the entrance to the eastern and southern shores.

The fliers were in a painful position. From Reykjavik in Iceland they were to fly to the Eastern shore of Greenland at Angmagsalik. Even this point was 750 miles from the Icelandic harbor. From here they were to fly to Ivigtut on the western shore of the huge continent of Greenland, sheltered from easterly currents and therefore open later in the season. But with Angmagsalik closed, it was possible that they would be forced to the truly terrible non-stop flight of 1,000 miles from Reykjavik direct to Ivigtut right across Greenland's icy mountains. In the cruiser Raleigh, however, Rear-Adm. T. P. Magruder searched the southern shores of Greenland for an open space; it was also possible that Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship, the Quest, might be used as an icebreaker. There still remained the alternative of breaking the flight from Reykjavik by refueling in the open sea-- none too pleasant to contemplate in these rough waters.