Three Fatally Frozen Crossing Swiss Lake

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 590, 16 February 1929, Page 13

Three Fatally Frozen Crossing Swiss Lake

TRAPPED ON A FLOE COLD GRIPS CONTINENT (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) ( United Service) BERLIN, Thursday. A party of eight set out from Lindau to walk across frozen Lake 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 30 degrees of frost were registered in western, southern and central Germany. Airplanes 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 PARIS, Thursday. Ice is rapidly forming on the Seine. The surface is almost entirely covered by small floes floating 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. He 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 iceIn 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 isolated. The cold is so severe at Landau that several French sentries have collapsed and are now in hospital seriously ill. One sentry was discovered i«ad standing at his post, his rifle clutched in one hand. GONDOLAS FROZEN-IN NORTH ITALY STRICKEN ROME, Thurs. Polar conditions persist in Northern Italy. Many vessels and gondolas are frozen at Venice. Heavy snowstorms have fallen in 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 RUGBY, Thursday. Frost continues over Great Britain, but in London and most piaces the 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 interrupted by snow and ice in many 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 of frost, was registered at Greenwich Observatory early to-day. This equals the lowest point recorded there 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 as it was 34 years ago. Ice already stretches from bank to bank in some places. Launches, barges and locks are frozen up. ( One extraordinary result of the freezing of the higher reaches of the river is that very little water is flowing 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 completelyfrozen river would become much greater. Extraordinary precautions are being taken by the Thames Conservancy to keep the river free from ice. Every available man is engaged in breaking up the ice, iiid iceOreakers 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 Iftley Lock, Oxford, and above Reading Bridge, has become blocked with ice in this manner. At Henley the river has frozen completely across at two points. ENGINES STOPPED The severity of the weather is illusti’ated to what happened to-night to the Scottish express from London, which arrived at Glasgow to-day two hours behini? its scheduled time. Near Beattock summit the big engine came to an abrupt standstill, and when the driver dismounted he was startled to find the water gauge frozen. Two relief engines were dispatched to 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 re- | suit of the steam ejector becoming | frozen. Other engines had to be requisitioned.