BYRD’S EXPEDITION

Hokitika Guardian, 4 January 1929, Page 5

BYRD’S EXPEDITION

REPORT BY BYRD. WELLINGTON, Jan. 3. (Copyright by Byrd in camp on the Ice Barrier, January 2nd.; “Vaughan and I several hours ago returned here to our Lent, alter a 20-mil-e dog team trip of exploration. We drank the New Year in with several k..t cups of tea. That is a great cold vuatlier drink, and nothing could be more satisfying. The only New Year resolution I made was to wash the dishes for the night, and now we are sitting snug and comfortable all happy in our little fotirman tent, with Eskimo dogs curled up outside. We have a temporary radio antennae up with a bamboo mast -tuck in the snow.

‘•Radio i.s one tiling that at the moment imp-losses. It is a wondci'iul thing, that I can sit out here on this God forsaken hunk of ice in a small tent, giving instructions for operations to my shipmates, some ol them 2,(0i) miles away, and what a comforting thing it must he for those on the City ol New York, who hut for radio would certainly lie worried about us. since u<> disappeared several days ago over the ice into haze that lies between us and the ship. VISIBILITY CONDITIONS.

“Another thing which impresses me is extraordinary conditions of visibility that seem frequently to exist down here. We just stepped out of our tent nidi took a look around and could not prevent a slight eerie sensation due to the impossibility of judging with the eye tin* distance or shapes of the snowcovered areas that surround us. “This great hunk of ice harrier, on the low part of which we are encamped arises to north, east and south of us, ill sonic places to about 200 feet. We appear to he in a kind of howl, hut it i.s impossible to tell how far away the rim of it is, or where or how the valley to the westward,, through which we came, meets and merges into the Barrier. The vague linns that can he seen might he several feet away, or miles away. We glide over lie surface with our ski is and all of us stumble over a little upward .slop * that it is impossible to see. and when we reach a depression we are gliding down in it before we know it is there. Ail of this happened in broad daylight, lMicau.se of course, it is nearly as iighc at midnight as at mid-day here.

“We see in the distance a mountain uf snow, apparently miles off, hut in a few minutes wc reach tlii-s mountain and find it is a snow haycock, no higher than our chin. Again we see a pressure ridge, apparently close aboard, hut find it i.s miles off. No one of us who lias been in the Arctic lias experienced exactly this kind of thing, and even tiio Norwegians who have lived in the snow are remarking about it. But the weather is not always like this. The sun has shone once or twice and the visibility is then remarkably good. At such times, one is impressed with the extraordinary force that Nature exerts down nore.” ICE PRESSURE.

“Great massive hicks ,of ice are shoved up on the harrier hv an immovable area of what must he landlocked ice, holding hundreds of miles of water borne ice carried by the wind and current and other forces, and then the Bay here, which is about fifteen miles square, is criss-crossed with great blocks of pressure ridge ice, which are forced up by wind and tide. As the edge of the frozen barges held by the liiglisnow cliffs of the Barrier there is no land whatever in sight, only the snow covered surface of the Bay and Ice Barrier and the greenish blue ice of the Barrier walls.

•“Tlic Barrier is a superman, but the Bay of Tee shifts out in summer and we are now anxiously awaiting for this to happen, so that we can readily get our supplies to our base.” FOR THE SCHOOL CHILDREN.

“Vaughan and I Foci that our N«' v Year's Eve journey has not been fruitless, for we iiave been able to put something on the maps for the school children. We have found that since the Bay of Whales was first and last time surveyed and explored, 17 years ago, there have been some changes, one of which was the formation on the western side, of a Bay three miles from its entrance of the harbour, about two miles wide and seven miles deep. “This harbour, of course, is covered with ice and snow. One of our jobs will he to get an exact survey of it.” TBIBUTE TO COMBADES. “The third tiling that impresses me is as to my stout hearted comrades, who keep cheerful and high spirited regardless of the labours and hardships. It can be nothing hut a joy to go on the trail with such men', and those who have not had this experience, are in a way, unfortunate.” THE ST/ED I>ooß. “1 come back again to the dogs. I admire them even more, if possible, than I have formerly. On our New Year’s sled jaunt our leader, Terror, pulled until he could hardly stand. We put him on the sled for the rest of the trip and now he has special) privilege of being permitted to curl up in the tent after a big feed. Tomorrow he will he as good as new. “At times these dogs are great rascals. They are most pugnacious creatures and like nothing more than a good light. Frequently the harness is all messed up while on the trail, by a battle in which all of the seven dogs take pan. As they are likely to injure each other severely it is necessary to stop them at once.

“Si range its it may seem they apparently like to get into their harness, whore they do such gruelling work. They do not mind the cold,

nor de we; as our skin clothing keeps us warm. A COLDER ATMOSPHERE. “On an average it is about fifteen or twenty degrees colder here than in the Arctic. We arc now going to turn into our reindeer sleeping bags and after a little sleep, Vaughan and I will return to the ship and bring back six deg teams, fully loaded, to> start laving off a permanent base, which wll be about two hundred yards from this tent, upon the ice barrier. The ice is a way out in the Bay this year and our work is goingto be slow and difficult, but it has got to be done. Tt has been my great aim to get the material and personnel safely to our main base. The safety of the personnel comes first, and the elements down here are so capricious that it is vorv unwise to rush thugs, so we piopose to go as surely as possible even though our progress may bo slower.”