A NIGHT IN A BLIZZARD.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1672, 12 February 1913, Page 4

A NIGHT IN A BLIZZARD.

ANTARCTIC WEATHER. SCOTT'S ACCOUNT OF A STORM. A pathetic interest attaches to the following account by Captain Scott 'of the experiences of a party which'-was caught in a blizzard, and had to §pend tho night under most trying conditions:—. "But now the wind is springing up again. ' Throughout tho day tho clouds havo been banking up from the south; they are now travelling fast overhead, a lowflying scud. Tho sun peeps through ht rarer and rarer intervals, the sky and the mountains look very black and sombre and throw up the intense whiteness of the snow; the surface drift comes whirling - along in ghostly wreaths, and patters about our feet. The outlook is threatening, but we don't want to lose' oun miles if we can help it, so we plod along as bofore. , As the wind grows stronger, one by oiio out go the face-guards,, and we march with heads turned slightly to tho right, away from it. Wo must keep our cyo operi for frost-bites now; they will give no warning. Presently tho • leader calls a-halt; everyone knows what it is for, and each peers into the face of his next-door neighbour. Apparently- all is well, and off wo go again;. a'quarter of' an hour.later.there is another halt, and we hear, Tour cheek's gone, Jim,' and Jim immediately extracts his hand from his mit and places it over the offending feature. Also Jim knows that there will bo a blister there to-morrow.

, "Once more we resume the march, and for long, it is only interrupted by the occassional search for frost-bites. To the south the outlook appears still more gloomy, and presently wme adjacent hillspur disappears as though it had fallen through the earth, completely blotted out by a shest of deop'grey which is rushing towards us. This is the threatened storm, and the sooner wo are in camp the better. We cast round for a camping ground and rush for the likeliest spot; we halt and dash for the sledges; we think of'nothing bat getting the tents up in 'time. But alas! we have marched just five minutes too long, and we have scarcely, placed tho before the storm is upon us. "The air is thick with driving snowcrystals; they lash at our face liko a sand blast., It is. impossible to face them directly, and we rusn to and fro with averted. head. - So thick is the air that we can soaroely see the sledges from thetent position, though only six .or seven' yards lie between. It is each party for itself now with a vengeance. . One of our three hangs on like grim death to the tent poles, whilst the others bear the fluttering, straining-,canvas to windward and strive to envolop him. Once or twice they fail, but at last the tent is over, and whilst to windward it is stretched taut on f,he bending bamboos, to leeward it is flapping madly in the rising gale. One of us sits on tho weather, skirt, and the other flics for the' shovel and returns to dig with, wild haste. It is a long and difficult job this, to set up a tent in a heavy wind whilst the snow ourls and bites into our facp and creeps into our mits and into every hole arid crevice it can find in our garments. That wildly flapping skirting is only conquered inch by inch by the united efforts of the whole party. But it is bound to be done, and the sooner tho better; eo wo work with all the strengththat remains to us. • ■".••■ '•'" "Wo must have everything handy how, so when the tent is,secured wo :'fjy for sleeping-bag, 'cooker, and' anything else wo i may need, and -bundle them = nil -/indiscriminately . into .the interior, following ourselves with all tho haste we can com • pass. Only, when door and ventilator are tied have, we time to lopk about us, nnd then tho sight is .'not , pleasant. The powderysnow-dust lies inches deen.everywhere! it has covered everything we posses-i, and lies thick in ,every crack of the We ourselves are white from head to foot, and none of us but is keenly frost-bitten about the faoe, whilst one lias two of his fingers white to tho knuckles. Something hot is what.nil need, and we set about to get it with the least possible .waste of time, whilst we brnsh tho snow as best we can from our belomrings.. v ■ "Supper makes one feel better, and immediately after wo unroll tho'sleepingbag and commence to prepare ourselves for entering it. We know from experience ■ what all this snow will mean; we cannot wholly banish it, and the icy condition of our belongings is nothing to what it will _bo; yet we sweep and sweep as diligontly as may be with our. fur mits to make the best of a bad job, till finallv we lift the cover of the ba? and settle ourselves with all possible care within. ' "It is curious to lie liko'-. this in a blizzard; luckily the temperature has gone, up. as it always does on these occasions.. The'rise is apparent in every way; wo,can handle things more easily, our breath does not ris9 in such steaming clouds, but, above all, there is a milder ■and.easier feel in the air once one is out of tho lash of the wind. Our discomforts now come moro from the miserably chilly wetness of everything than from the actual cold.

Meanwhile the storm without is raging .unabated, and tho thin canvas of the tent is flapping with a continuous'roar that drowns all noise within ;• conversation can only be carried on by shouting. "Still, the main point is that we are all in the slcep-lng-bag, and safe and sound- if not very comfortable, so, in-due course wo settle ourselves'.in its depths and draw over us the protecting flap. There will be no shivering . to-night at any rate, and we can smoke our pipes with greater ease in consequence; here, in the depths of'the bag, tho mad flapping of the tent has sunk to distant thunder."