| Summary: | No Animal Life Found Near Pole: White Desert Of Ice Has Shown No Fish, Flesh Or Fowl./Airbag Is Best./Norge Expert Believes Airplane Is Fitted Only For Shorter Flights. NO ANIMAL LIFE FOUND NEAR POLE White Desert of Ice Has Shown No Fish, Flesh or Fowl. AIRBAG IS BEST Norge Expert Believes Airplane Is Fitted Only for Shorter Flights. By Fredrik Ramm, Spokesman-Review and New York Times correspondent aboard the Norge. (Copyright, 1926.) WITH THE NORGE AT AT TELLER, Alaska, via Nome, May 18.—An interesting observation made on the transpolar flight of the Norge was the nonexistence of birds and animals on the polar ice. Leaving behind us the islands of Spitzbergen and the north coast of Europe with millions of arctic birds, the last living creatures observed were white fish swimming in a little lead some miles from the pack of ice. White bear tracks on the ice indicated, however, the possibility of seals living up to latitude 83. From over the pole and down to the Alaskan coast no tracks, no animals and no birds were observed in the white desert. The first bird seen after Point Barrow was in sight was a gull. Immediately afterward fox trackes, too, were observed on the ice. The first men observed were Eskimos on the coast between were Eskimos on the coast between Point Barrow and Wainwright. Roused by the heavy sound of the airship's engines they hurried out of their skin nuts to look after the ship going southward in the snow squall. Airbag Best for Distance. When the Amundsen-Ellswortk expedition 1925 opened the new era of polar exploring by using flying boats several experts declared that the airship was better than planes. The Amundsen-Ellsworth-Nobile expedition makes it possible to compare the experiences of both expeditions. The technical expert and second in command of both expeditions was Lieutenant Riiser-Larsen, who declares that in his opinion the lighter-than-air ship is by far the most fitted for the longer flights in the arctic regions. For exploring small regions he thinks airplanes may be better on condition they have a mother ship or other good base. "The lighter than air ship," he declared, "is best for lights as long as that recently made, for the reasons pointed out before the expedition started, the airship having a longer flying range, a great lifting capacity and being less dependent on landing places than planes. "During the last expedition, as noted on the 1925 expedition, no good landing places for planes were on polar ice, the ice being broken up everywhere and there being only a few small leads in the ice. Generally speaking, the ice surface is equal all over the polar basin. It may be the leads are fewer in the region between the geographical pole and the ice pole than on the pole and the European side. In any case the difference is not great. Need to Rise More Quickly. "Our experience shows that new airships for poalr exploring should be so constructed that it is possible to rise more quickly to go over fog and clouds and to avoid the risk of being loaded down by a crust of ice -- one of the most serious for an airship in the poalr regions. All metallic constructions outside the ship and engines should be covered completely. No ropes or wires should be placed outside, all instruments being mounted in the cabins to avoid ice forming on them. "The success of the expedition should result in investigating the possibilities of regualr airship routes over the arctic regions. Several other important results of our experiences may be published later on when scientifically worked out."
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