Three Fatally Frozen Crossing Swiss Lake

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 589, 15 February 1929, Page 9

Three Fatally Frozen Crossing Swiss Lake

TRAPPED ON A FLOE COLD GRIPS CONTINENT (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) .Australian ami N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Reel. 11.2 S a.m. BERLIN. Thurs A party of eight set out from Lind u to walk across frozen Luke Constance. When in the middle of the lake they found they were on a floating ice-floe. Their distress signals were not observed till dawn. Three died from exposure and others were terribly frostbitten. The River Elbe is frozen over from Dresden to Hamburg. More than 3i> degrees of frost were registered in western, southern and central GerAirplanes are employed in carrying food and spirits to ice-bound ships on the Baltic Sea. Fog is adding to the difficulties of the situation at Prague MUCH ICE ON SEINE BITTER COLD IN PARIS A PREDICTION VERIFIED Reed. 11 a.m. PARIS. Tburs. Ice is rapidly forming on the Seim The surface is almost entirely covered by small floes Iloatir.g downward. The state of the weather verifies in a remarkable fashion a prediction made by Abbe Moreux, the famous director of the Bourges Observatory, in January, 1928. lie then prophesied that the River Thames would be frozen in the winter of 1929, and that Western Europe would experience conditions somewhat akin to those of the iceage. In Paris the director of State pawnshops has ordered all eiderdowns, blankets and woollen shawls to be restored gratis to those who pledged them. The River Marne is frozen and all the rivers as far west as Cherbourg are becoming ice-bound. Lyons is practically isc luted. The cold is so severe at Landau that several French sentries have collapsed and are now in hospital seriously ill. One sentry was discovered lead standing at his post, his rifie clutched in one hand. GONDOLAS FROZEN-IN NORTH ITALY STRICKEN Reed. 1.25 p.m. ROME, Thurs. Polar conditions persist in Northern Italy. Many vessels and gondolas are frozen at Venice. Heavy snowstorms have fallen It* Northern and Central Italy and there is a widespread interruption of trains. The snow in several towns is three feet deep. Avalanches have fallen in the province of Ancona and snow 20ft deep is blocking the railway. Snow is falling in Rome. RIVER THAMES FROZEN ICE-BREAKERS AT WORK DANGER OF A HOLD-UP British Official Wireless Reed. noon. RUGBY, Thursday. Frost continues over Great Britain, but in London and most places tte bitter easterly wind has abated. At 9 o’clock this morning there were nine degrees of frost in Central London, and a slight snow was falling in the bright sunlight. There were 17 degrees of frost during the night. Road traffic continues to be interi noted by snow and ice in ma.nv parts of the West of England and Scotland. Many rivers are frozen, including the Camm and the Isis, where the University boat race crews are thus unable to practise. A ground temperature of seven degrees above zero, or 25 degrees or frost, was registered at Greenwich Observatory early to-day. This equals the lowest point recorded tlier. during the great frost of February 1895, when the River Thames was last blocked with ice.

It seems likely that the Thames will shortly be In the same condition a.; it was 34 years ago. Ice alreadv stretches from bank to bank in soim places. Launches, barges and lockare frozen up. ( One extraordinary result o’ the freezing of the higher reaches of tile river is that very little water is flow mg down to London. At Richmond, the water is so low that one could paddle across. If the stream stopped running, said a Thames conservancy official, the danger of a completely, frozen river would become much greater. Extraordinary precautions are being taken by the Thames Conservancy to keep the river tree from ice. Every available man is engaged in breaking up the ice, and Icebreakers are busy at many points. Big blocks of ice have formed across the river. These float down the river and get jammed at various points, and then freeze together. The river above the lffley Look. Oxford, and above Reading Bridge! has become blocked with ice ii this manner. At Henley the river has frozen completely across at two points. ENGINES STOPPED The severity of the weather is illustrated to what happened to-night, to the Scottish express from London which arrived at Glasgow to-da- two hours behin.7 its scheduled time. Near Beattock summit the big engine ramt to an abrupt standstill, and when the driver dismounted he was startiec to find the water gauge frozen. Two relief engines were dispatched no the scene and were attached to the front and rear of the train respectively They commenced to take the express up the summit, but half way up the leading locomotive stopped as a result of the steam ejector becoming frozen. Other engines had to bo requisitioned.