IN ANTARCTICA

Hokitika Guardian, 18 December 1929, Page 5

IN ANTARCTICA

(By Russell Owen—Copyrighted 1929 by the New York Times Company, and St. Louis Post Despatch. All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to New York Times.) f SOUNDINGS NEAR CAMP. a (United Press Association—By Electric r Telegraph.—Copyright.) - BAY 'OF WHALES, Dec. 15. The first sounding made near the ' camp shows that we are indeed floatI • mg. '.l hrough a hole in the ice at the 1 head of Versurmer Inlet only about 1 150 yards from our front door, a ' sounding of sixteen hundred feet was obtained. It is hoped that a series of soundings around the Bay and' in crevasses south of the camp may be made so that something more definite may he learned about the possible presence of land near hero. Something must hold this barrier or the Bay of Whales would have disappeared long ago. Sounding is hard work where okl ice remains and eighteen feet of it has to penetrated before water is reached. This sounding was done by Paul Siplo and Victor Czeeka. A sled has been fixed up to hold a reel. Burning oil and gasolene torches were used to assist in penetrating the first five feet. Then a long pipe was used to chip through the ice. When the pipe had gone down as far as it would reach, and the bottom had not been located, Czeeka put together two pieces of angle iron making a drill twenty feet long. He worked down through the last three feet and when the drill went through, it nearly jerked from his hand. A sounding line was then let down through the hole and after dropping fifteen hundred and ninety feet brought up against the bottom. It showed a clay floor at this part of the bay. 1 Czeeka has made a device for bringing up samples of the bottom A'hi eh will be used for future soundings. It j« small and its end is scoop shaped like one of tyose iron jaws on dredges used for deepening channels, but it is actuated by powerful springs which snap the jaws together when the bottom is reached and hold them closed. Some interesting specimens may be obtained with it.