MYSTERIOUS CRASH

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 374, 4 March 1937, Page 8

MYSTERIOUS CRASH

Noise That Frightened a Polar Explorer. (By Air Mail—Own Correspondent). London, January 3. For five months Mr Augustine Courtauid, the explorer, lived alone on a Greenland ice-cap, suffering untold hardships, facing unknown, dangers, victim of terrifying experiences. That was in 1931. Mr Courtauid broke his silence and told of his experiences for the first time in a lecture to children at the Royal Empire Society. He told them of a strange phenomenon that had never been satisfactorily explained. “One day, while I was at the ice station, I heard a noise," he said, “like a tube train coming down a tunnel and getting nearer and nearer, until it ended in a great crash overhead. “I was frightened and could not think of anything that would account for it. The first time I went outside I found that nothing had happened. That made it all the more mysterious. “It was not just a case of nerves, because other people have noticed it. Scientists explain it as a settlement of the snow on a big scale. It was most terrifying.” Mr Courtauid had to stay at the station alone as the expedition could not get suffiejen provisions' for two to the station because of bad weather. As he had frost-bitten toes he could not remain outside for long, and gradually the entrance of the house- was 1 snowed under, but as part of his rations were buried outside he had to find them. After he had done this there came a terrible blizzard, and the driven snow came In through the trapdoor like high-pressure steam. By morning it was impossible to get out. He had to sit inside and do nothing.