The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, May 1, 1909. DEFERENCE UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 455, 1 May 1909, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, May 1,1909. DEFERENCE UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

Accokding to Mr Douglas Mawson, the view down a South Polar crevasse is often one of vivid colouring—in green and azure particularly. He was sometimes tempted to stay down a little longer than he should for the purpose of attempting to take a photograph, but the light was never good enough. Professor David once stayed down for quite another reason. “ On our journey to the Magnetic Pole,” said Mr Mawson, when lecturing in Sydney the other day, “we camped one evening in a region of touch crevassed ice. I was busy changing photographic plates in a sleeping bag, and Dr. Mackay had gone on about half a mile to inspect the route we were to take on the following day. Professor David had proposed to go, too, but was delayed at the camp. , I had got safely inside the bag, and buttoned it up, when I beard the Professor gently calling, ‘ Mawson, Mawson.’ I answered, ‘ Hullo,’ and the Prolessor, hearing the muffled sound, replied, ‘ Oh, you are in the bag changing plates, are you?’ ‘Yes, Professor.’ There was silence for some time, and then again the call, in a louder tone ‘Mawson, Mawson,’ I answered, again, and then heard the Professor say, ‘ You are still changing plates, are you, Mawson ?’ ‘Yes, Professor.’ Silence once more. Then after a minute or two, in a still louder and an anxious tone the Professor called again, ‘ Mawson, Mawson.’ I was getting a little tired of it, and, thinking something might be the matter, I called out, ‘ What is it Professor ? Can I do anything tor you ?’ ‘ Well Mawson,’ he replied, I am in a dangerous position. I am down a crevasse, holding on by my fingers, and 1

really don’t think I can hold much longer. I will have to trouble you to come to assist me.’ Needless to say, I wasn’t long in getting out of the bag, and there was the Professor holding on to the edge of a crevasse which had been snowed over, his head just showing over the surface. He was soon rescued.” The Professor’s nerve and deference will be the better appreciated when it is remembered that a crevasse of the kind might be of any depth up to thousands ot feet. That into which the Manchurian pony Sox fell was so deep that not a sound of him was heard as he reached the solids below. When on the march the voyageurs had the sledge harness to sustain them if they toppled in, but on this occasion Professor David was without that safeguard.