IN ANTARCTICA

Hokitika Guardian, 19 July 1929, Page 5

IN ANTARCTICA

WHERE THE WEATHER IS COLD. ( United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) i (Received this day at 12.25. p.m.) (By Russell Owen—Copyrighted 1921 by the New York Times Company, and St. Louis Post Dispatch. All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to New Yoik times.) BAY OF WHALES, July 15. The last fortnight has been the coldest we have had. In fact the average for July is the coldest ever reported from Antarctica, fifty below, compared with Amundsen’s August forty-four. Eleven out of the first thirteen days averaged sixty below, with one day touching seventy, and that is cold. When it is calm at seventy below, there is no discomfort inside or out for a short time, if warmly clad, for with our fur clothing only the exposed parts of the face suffer, and when the nose is warmed by the hands, it soon becomes warm again. The only trouble is that while warming the nose the hand freezes and one feels suddenly a bite on the fingertips as if it had been seized by a pair of tiny pincers.

But when the wind blows at all at low temperatures, then it is almost impossible to face it. for more than a few minutes at a time.

To-day, foi; instance, it was fifty below, the temperature to which we have become accustomed while walking, hut there is a ten mile wind and that wind whips around the face and causes intense pain. The nose continually suffers and the cheeks are nipped as if by fire. Cold without wind can he withstood, but cold with wind is impossible.

Extreme cold does strange tilings. It is odd to stand outside and hear one’s breath as it freezes. The barrier snow contracted sharply and a! about could be heard cracks and snaps where snow crystals let go under contraction. It was weird, as if the houses were built on an unstable element, that was moving beneath our feet. So small are those cracks that we have never seen any of them. Except for a large crack just north of Camp Bay. The ice ljooms like distant guns at times, when large cracks apparently, run across it. Guywires on the antenna posts become taut as harp strings; and hum when the slightest winds hit them. It has i curious effect on. our lights also’. Candles used under meteorological balloons must-be warmed before they will burn outside, for more than a few minutes. Incidentally what is believed to he a record observation in cold temperatures was made when a balloon was sent up on the day when the temperature was seventy below zero.

Kerosene lanterns, when taken outside freeze up, the mixture of kerosene 1 and gasoline becoming - hard as ice. Rubber insulation inwards gets so brittle that it breaks at the slightest touch and porous rubber crumbles. Yes, it is cold, hut our coldest weather is ahead of us. Still in two months the sun will begin to warm up this frozen land. It first appears on August 2nd and everyone is looking forward to seeing that comfortable old globe look above the horizon. The light in the north grows a little stronger every day.