PAUL A. SIPLE
1158 WEST FIFTH STREET
ERIE, PENNA.
December 9, 1935
Dear Mr. Behrend,It is with great pleasure that I present this little token of friendship. This rock was picked up on the "ash dump" - a unique moraine running out from the base of an extinct volcano, Mt. Raymond Fosdick in the Edsel Ford Mountain Range of northern Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica.
The land was first discovered from the air by Admiral Byrd in 1929, but it was first visited by our party travelling by dog team during October - December, 1934. The Marie Byrd Land sledging party was composed of four men - Alton Wade, Geologist,Stevenson Corey and Olin Stancliff, drivers and assistants, and myself as leader and Biologist.
The volcano was at the extreme turning point of our travels, about three hundred miles from Little America. Corey and I spent Thanksgiving Day near the point where this rock was picked up in a blizzard that blew almost continuously for three days at a velocity rarely below thirty five miles an hour, and often of hurricane velocity completely flattening our tent.
The sextant you so kindly loaned us helped to guideus through the hundreds of weary, uncharted miles, and I return it to you with deepest appreciation and with it a piece of the Antarctic continent itself.
With kindest regards,
Sincerely yours,
Paul A. Siple
