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National Geographic : 1925 Jan
Contents
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE rnotograpii Dy Junius 1. wood THE AIRSIIP'S SHADOW PASSES THE U. S. S. "CALIFORNIA" The flagship of the navy of the air passes California. Greetings were exchanged between and Rear Admiral Moffett. kets of white and scattered groups of darker figures were in the fields, and square bales, dice in the distance, were piled at every railroad station. Clearings around weather-beaten houses with dirt roads faintly visible through the trees would spring out of the forests. Every house seemed to have a family with nu merous children. While chickens and cows ran in terrified circles, the children would gaze in awe or wildly wave greet ings. (ne portly colored citizen-the glasses disclosed him to be such-dashed into the house and reappeared waving a white tablecloth to make sure that he would be noticed. Fires were smoldering through the forests of Louisiana. Columns of smoke rose lazily as high as the ship, and the dull glow of burning brush could be seen through the trees, waiting only a wind to fan the blaze to their tops. It was the same in Arkansas through a night on the return voyage, two weeks later. The Shenandoah was over Bastrop, the flagship of the battle fleet off San Pedro, Admiral S. S. Robison, commanding the fleet, La., at 2:I0 p. m., passed Shreveport and the Red River at 4:15, and was almost to Texas. Night had fallen when the lights of Dallas twinkled below at 7:40 p. m. At 8:30 p. m. she was above the mooring mast, 8 miles outside of Fort Worth. At 9:45 she had cooled sufficiently to ap proach low enough to drop her cable. The cables were coupled and she rose to be pulled down to the mast. As frequently happens with new ma chinery, the winch balked and it was II :05 p. m. before she was wound down by hand and anchored. Fort Worth is the home of helium gas, of which the United States claims a monopoly. It is extracted from natural gas, and the Navy's helium plant, in charge of Lieutenant Z. W. Wicks, is about a mile from the mast. (ther gas deposits contain helium, but none so far discovered has sufficient quantity to be extracted economically (see also pages 97-99). Fort Worth was enthusiastic, as was all Texas. So many thousands of the
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