Page Content (OCR)
the end of this territory not recorded on any map. Evidently, the United States Government feared that some other government may learn about Byrd's discovery and conduct similar flights, going much further into it than Byrd did, and perhaps claiming this land area as its own. Commenting on Byrd's statement, made in 1957 shortly before his death, in which he called the new territory he discovered beyond the Poles "that enchanted continent in the sky" and "land of everlasting mystery," Palmer says: "Considering all this, is there any wonder that all the nations of the world suddenly found the south polar region (particularly) and the north polar region so intensely interesting and important, and have launched explorations on a scale actually tremendous in scope?" Palmer concludes that this new land area that Byrd discovered and which is not on any map, exists inside and not outside the earth, since the geography of the outside is quite well known, whereas that of the inside (within the polar depression) is "unknown." For that reason Byrd called it the "Great Unknown." After discussing the significance of the use of the term "beyond" the Pole by Byrd instead of "across" the Pole to the other side of Arctic or Antarctic regions, Palmer concludes that what Byrd referred to was an unknown land area inside the polar concavity and connecting with the warmer interior of the Earth, which accounts for its green vegetation and animal life. It is "unknown" because it is not on the Earth's outer surface and hence is not recorded on any map. Palmer writes: "In February of 1947, Admiral Richard E. Byrd, the one man who has done the most to make the North Pole a known area, made the following statement: “I'd like to see the land beyond the Pole. That area beyond the Pole te abe 22 2 fab Ree ete. "Millions of people read this statement in their daily newspapers. And millions thrilled at the Admiral's subsequent flight to the Pole and to a point 1,700 miles beyond it. Millions heard the radio broadcast description of the flight, which was also published in newspapers. "What land was it? Look at your map. Calculate the distance from all the known lands we have previously mentioned (Siberia, Spitzbergen, Alaska, Canada, Finland, Norway, Greenland and Iceland). A good portion of them are well within the 1,700 mile range. But none of them are within 200 miles of the Pole. Byrd flew over no known land. He himself called it ‘the great unknown.' And great it is indeed. For after |,700 miles over land, he was forced by gasoline supply shortage to return, and he had not yet reached the end of it; He should have been back to * civilization.’ But he was not. He should have seen nothing but ice- a ee SO 8 SSR SRY Ol | SON OS is the center of the Great Unknown". covered ocean, or at the very most, partially open ocean. Instead he was over