Down Icy Crevasse

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 648, 27 April 1929, Page 11

Down Icy Crevasse

BYRD FINDS WATER BELOW

Mystery of Barrier Land

BY RUSSELL OWEN

■■ PosUDHnftch All Hehx* S A° rk Times” company and the St. Louis to the ‘‘NewYork Ymef." £ P ubh <-'ation reserved throughout the world. Wireless BAY OF WHALES, Thursday. rO. IMAN DER BYRD went to the bottom of a crevasse nor th of our camp yesterday and found sea-water about oo feet down, or rather slush-ice. We had long believed that there was water under the Barrier on which our base is located, and also that there must he land somewhere near here to hold it for so manv years in its peculiar formation.

The location of that land is a secret which would explain the existence of the Bay of Whales. If we did not believe in this land, we might he somewhat uneaesy as to the permanence of our winter quarters. The crack Byrd descended has interested us for some time, because it has become wider in the last few i weeks. Whether this is due to contraction in the cold weather, or to a : Barrier movement, or to a tendency on the part of a section of the Barrier to calve off, no one knows. 1 The majority opinion tends to the contraction theory, and the commander’s inspection of it seems to support that opinion more strongly than any other; but so little is known 1 about the movement of the Barrier • here, the location of the land to which 1 our portion of the Barrier is subjected, and the action of the currents and the : tide on the great ice mass, that any ' opinion is hardly more than an intelligent guess at present. If possible Commander Byrd intends to know something more definite about it by the spring, by making soundings. It was a cold day for playing around '• crevasses. The temperature was 50 ‘ below zero, and a light breeze was blowing. While a suitable spot was being found for entering the crevasse, those ' in the party were busy part of the ■ time watching for frozen spots on 1 each other’s faces. “You’ve got it on the cheek,” one 1 would call, and the other would answer 1 hack: “Well, your nose is frozen,” and < then a mitten was removed so that i the frozen member could be rubbed. ' The hand would freeze. i

It was so cold that hand flashlights could not be used, as cold stopped the chemical action of the dry batteries. Strom froze his left big toe, and had to run for the nearest house and thaw it out. It resembled a cold potato when he stripped his socks off. Doctor Coman nearly froze his hands and had to get some warmer gloves. Light was provided, however, by a portable gasoline engine generator, which Hansen took and attached to a locomotive type of searchlight that was pointed down into the dark fissure. WARMER DOWN BELOW When everything was ready, a rope was placed around the commander, under his arms, crossing on his chest, and fastened behind his head. The crevasse did not go straight down, and there were many sharp projections of ice, which broke off and tumbled about his ears. The ropes were held by Strom and Siple, the Boy Scout (who is about the size of the big Norwegian), Vaughan, Feuery and Thorne together. It was much warmer at the bottom and a thermometer placed on the ice registered 18 degrees above zero Fahr., although it was 50 degrees below at the surface. Byrd could walk only a few feet in either direction, so after satisfying himself that the ice below him really contained salt, and tcking a sample of that and of the bottom of the Barrier snow, he was pulled up again to join the frost-bitten crowd above. But in coming up, he examined more carefully some unusually large ice crystals which projected thickly from the sides of the crevasse.