Manual Arts High School - Artisan Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

Page 16 text:

ADMIRAL BYRD WTAk ' iTM CADET I ' .Y ll;i,| N I A M ERRILL Despite the Fact thai two planes, radio towers, and all the buildings of Little America had been left behind, nol one of these items had been depended upon for the second trip. For this second expedition, over four- teen thousand items were planned besides the new living quarters. Byrd has written an entire article upon his Battle oi Preparation to provide living quarters for men for two or three years in the Antarctic, without losing a single man. Me has said that more than half a dozen volumes could be written about the period necessary tor this planning. The Admiral ' s officers, hand-picked, were cadetting for high adventure and hoping for victory. Their laboratory was comparable to the best in civilization, from cosmic ray instruments to receiving and transmitting radio sets. With the finding of plant fossils, leaf and stem impressions, coal, and fossilized wood, Byrd has drawn unexpected conclusions. The climate in Antarctica was once temperate or sub-tropical as in our own. Because we now know this, we may realize the aspect of the Americas during the Glacial Age, which has over a period of thousands of years, retreated slowly to the Poles, In spite of the intense cold, life of the minutest cells and tiny plants still exists. Byrd, a true cadet, during the time of our education, prepared for and enacted a soul-stirring drama, the like of which we may never see ayain.