IN ANTARCTICA

Hokitika Guardian, 13 November 1929, Page 5

IN ANTARCTICA

(By Russell Owen—Copyrighted 1929 by the New York Times Company, and St. Louis Post Dispatch. All rights for publication reserved throughout the world Wire'ess to New Yoik Tunes.)

TRAMPING PARTY’S ORDEAL. [United Press Association—By Electric Te leg in pli.—Copy rig 1i t. J tßeceived this day at 10 a.m.) BAY OF WHALES, Nov. 11. Gould’s geographical party, headed for the Queen Maud range, arrived on Saturday at Depot No. 2, which is 80 doegres 10 minutes south. Soft snow and poor visibility made the going terribly hard for the two days.- Four grimy-faced, be-whiskerod men came up the slope to the cam]) yesterday, having travelled more than four hundred miles on the Barrier, crossing twice an area of crevasses, holes, and haycocks, so dangerous that it echoed beneath their feet and roared and growled round them while they slept. They were members oif the southern supporting party. They were a little thinner than when they left but were in perfect condition.

Wilden’s grizzled grey whiskers made him appear even more a trial veteran than he is. Braathon’s was curled in every direction and the faces of Bursey and De Grauahul were burned by the sun and on one side of Joe’s cheeks was a j’oiind blistered spot, where he had been frozen.

They gave a graphic description of one of the narrow escapes from death. A valley stretched ahead of them, smooth and inviting, hut suddenly it rang hollow. They halted and tapped it everywhere. It seemed a wide level roof of snow over some cavern, the extent of which taxed their imagination. T’hev felt their way round the edge of it, hardly believing that it could lie so large. It was as big as a city block. This whole covering sheet was apparently held up by snow pillars somewhere, or perhaps hills between tremendously wide crevasses. They worked their way round the western edge of it, dodging between haycoks, and taking their sledges over narrow ledges running between deep chasms and hole's frequently on the slope from which they might have slipped into the depths below them. At one point two open f>*evasses came together before them in the shape of an arrow and on a point where it was bridged by snow they went across gingerly, with holes on either side. Many of these crevasses and even some holes were fifty or one hundred feet wide and were covered with a thin film of snow with a crack in it, through which they could look from the side at black caves underneath.

Fortunately they . had sunlight and could avoid these traps large enough to have swallowed a whole caravan. They had used seventy flags in two miles, going through this region, so winding was the trail, and everyone heaved a sigh of relief. '• When they finally emerged. They turned back to look at it and even as they did, a fog began to form and in ten minutes the whole area was blotted out. If they had waited a day longer they could not have gone through. It was one of the most spectacular sights of the whole trip, said Walden, to see that veil of fog settle down and shut out the awfulness of the broken ice.

The rest of their trip was fairly easy. They reached 81.45 south and laid down their last depot and started hack with light sledges.