In Search of Giant Squid
Yesterday we drove with Steve to the lookout atop Mt. Victoria, the
highest point around town. We had a great 360 degree view of the area
as the late afternoon sun glared through the dusky haze. Just below
the lookout sits the simple, yet impressive tent-shaped memorial to
Admiral Richard E. Byrd, the famous American polar explorer who made so
many discoveries during a number of expeditions to Antarctica. The
memorial points directly south toward the icy continent, and if you
were to follow that line you would hit no land until you fetched up on
Antarctica itself. Because New Zealand is `so close' to Antarctica, it
was and is the staging area for Antarctic expeditions, including
Byrd's...
The Byrd Memorial is especially meaningful to me, because I was taken
there by a New Zealander in 1964, shortly after it had been erected.
J. (Bob) Holmes Miller was himself an Antarctic explorer of
considerable accomplishment: he, and his dogs, held the record for the
world's longest dog sled journey, accomplished during a surveying
expedition through a large, rugged, previously unexplored segment of
the continent. We even visited his heroic lead dog at the Wellington
Zoo. A few days later I followed in the southerly direction indicated
by Admiral Byrd's bronze gaze from his memorial. I was aboard the US
Antarctic Research Ship ELTANIN, for a 2 _ month expedition during
which I conducted research for my PhD dissertation on Antarctic
cephalopods.
Smithsonian Giant Squid Overview Page
gene carl feldman / gene@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov