THRILLING ADVENTURE

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1921, Page 5

THRILLING ADVENTURE

COLLAPSE OF A SNOWBRIDGE. EXPLORER’S NARROW ESCAPE. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Sept. 25, 5.5 p.m. London, Sept. 24. Mr. Ralph Segnit, who recently returned from an expedition to Spitsbergen, recounted to the Australian Press Association thrilling experiences during an expedition to Mount Terrier, a sharp peak rising from an immense glacier overlooking Klerasbilen Ray and the whole of Spitzbergen. Mount Terrier had never before been climbed. Mr. Segnit and two others trudged ten miles across a badly crevassed glacier. Mr. Segnit, who was the centre man in the rope, fed the leader over a doubtful looking snowbridge, and when following the trail the bridge collopscd and Mr. Segnit disappeared to the length of the rope, fifteen feet, while his companions anchored themselves with axes. The opening in the bridge was very wide, the snow crashing down two hundred feet.

Mr. Segnit was suspended and thought the end had come, as he feared the rope would become embedded in the ice. in which case his position would be most perilous. “I flung myself forward against the remaining portion of the snowbridge and succeeded in keeping the rope above ice,” he said. “I was for more than half an hour out ot the sight of my companions. Eventually I groped a way out by a swimming action. I was half frozen, but I soon recovered.”

Mr. Segnit secured valuable fossils, mainly corals, on the top peak, which is 4050 feet high. He writes two papers for the London Geological Society.— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

Mr. Ralph Segnit, a South Australian, who was at Balliol College, Oxford, obtained honors in his final examination in geology, and was awarded the Burdett-Coutts scholorship for two years in geology and science. Mr. Segnit accepted an invitation to accompany the Oxford University’s expedition to Spitzbergen, in the Arctic Ocean, as as-sistant-geologist. The expedition was devoted to the advancement of zoology, geology and botany, and was the first of its kind arranged by Oxford University. It was composed of 17 members.