MacMillan Heard From

Donald B. MacMillan, the American explorer, who has occupied the center of the Polar stage since the failure of Capt. Roald Amundsen's expedition (TIME, June 18, June 25), has been heard from after a long silence.

With a picked crew of six men, MacMillan sailed from Maine July 16, completely equipped for radio communication with a syndicate of newspapers through the American Radio Relay League. Two amateur stations last week picked up a message giving the latitude of the Bowdoin as 78DEG 30' N., which indicates the expedition has reached Etah, on the north-west coast of Greenland, the point of departure of many pole dashes, 2,300 miles north of Boston.

Dr. MacMillan's object is not a quest of the Pole, but a study of climatic and magnetic conditions in the Arctic region. The influence of the aurora borealis on radio will be observed. The discoveries of changes in the sun's heat ( TIME, May 5) and the southward advance of glaciers in recent years have given rise to conjectures of the possible advent of a new ice age. MacMillan hopes to find definite scientific data as to whether a new glaciation may be expected, but most geologists hold that it is too early to make predictions. The last of the four great ice ages passed probably about 30,000 years ago, and the intervals between them are believed to have been much greater than this, although irregular.