The Polar Night

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 69, 23 April 1929, Page 7

The Polar Night

By Telegraph— Press Association— Copyright

Australian Press Association.

WINTER IN ANTARTICA Strange Happenings Hecorded BYRD'S TRIP TO BARRIER

Uxeceivea This Day, Noon.) BAY OF WHALES, April 22. Friday's blizzard blew itself out and to-day is clear and cold, with the barometer 32 degrees below zero. There is 110 wind, however, and Commander Byrd and a dozen others walked down the Bay of lce along the grey line of jaggc-d pressure ridges, trying to get exercise. We are on the Winter! schedule, rising at 8-30 for breakfast,with dinner at 4.30— two meals daily and c-offee in between. Bedtime is at ten, and a few hardy souls read for a short time by caudlei or lantern, until their hands are tco cold to hold the hook, and that isn't long. Dr. Coman, who has been studying tlio effects of low temperatures on the body, took tlie opportnnity of the cold day and the prospect of a bath to test his own resistance to cold. Much to our amusement he ran outdoors, without elothes, and oovered 200 yards ta the other house. He ran as fast as he could and was hitting a good pace at the end. In order to keep irom slipping lie had caribou slippers on his feet. The steam rose from him as if from a locomotive going up a grade and his hreath rolled out in clouds. He raised at least a 20 mile wind in his run over and it burned his back like fire. Tlie backs of his fingers and his hand were white from being nipped wlien be dasbed into the -other house and up to the stove, but the rest of his body was untouclied. When he came back he walked and as there was no- wind, felt no bad effects at all. He even stopped at the thermometer shelter and opened it to see what the temperature was and then strolled along as nonchalantly as if he had been elotlied. Then he had his bath. We had a most successful ancl enjoyable broadeast from Byrd's New, York friends. It ended, however, in an eclio of tragedy, which deeply affects every one of us. After the ;talks and messages from home were read, one of them was to oue of the best of our company, a fine fellow who had listened to his liiother speaking a short time before ancl who had been moved by her evident emotion, as we liad all been, in sympathy. He was smiling again at the many messges, some of them amtising, which were received, when there came oue to him announcing the death of his brother. The impersonal sound of it, eoming from the loud speaker, was a great shock to liim and it affeeted us all. Another man received word of the death of two favourite relatives, so it can be seen that at times we wateh with dread the hox from which word comes from home. A CQMPLETE CHANGE. The whole aspect of our existenee here is changing with the going of tho 6un. In place of the clear white light to whieh we have been so long aecustomed ihe landscape is overlaid in tho brief day-time with dull grey, with strc-aks of crimson and orange 011 tlie horizon. At night there is a grim shadowy light from the stars and the aurora retlected on the snow, and the moon comes up a monstrous, distortcd ball of red. It is as if the world were dving. It is dark now long before we go to suppcr, and last uiglit, on f'16 ^vay back, a tiny speck of light fiared up 011 tho hillside of the barrier north of the camp. A second after it went out and a bright .green glow hurst forth and the whole section of the barrier flained as if with intemal green light. ASTON ISH ING EFFECT. Commander Byrd, Joe Rucker and Vandorveer had gone up to look at a crevasse with a magnesium flare. to see if it could he photograplied. They held tlie flare down in the crack and could see far down into its crvstal sides, gleaming with green genps, glowing darker emerald towards the bottom, until they faded into blackness.But tho most astonishing effect was the glow through the iec itself, for the light so penotrated tho barrier that oue appeared to bo standing on a trnnslucent surface, "luminous below with the fires of liell," as Byrd said. The glowing green surface seemed to becoine dolicate and fi*agile until they had the feeling that they would fall through, and stepped gingerly, aithough reason told tliem tnat tlie snow and ice were as solid as before, and up through tlie shining ci'aclc came green wisps of smoke as if an inferno, blazing with cold fire, were waiting to oonsume them. It was a weird and unforgettable sight. SINISTER ASPECT. The flares had died away and our eyes were becoming aecustomed to the darkiioss again when a harely perceptible red glow appeared 011 the horizon to the north. "What in the world is that," said someone. "It cau't be the aurora so far down." As it rose, faint streaks of red reaehed up towards tho «ky, liko the light from a burning house away in the country, where there are grass and trees and eows. After a hellish light tliis new mirror or conflagration came with nll the sinister aspect of a prophet of evil light and spreail as it rose, colouring tho cdge of ihe barrier, and the top of the hronze disc of tlie moon appeared ; but vliat a moon — bulhous. misshapen, and spotted leprouslv by the refraction, a pillar of fire hissing above it toward tlie zenitli. By Russell Owen, copyright, 1929, l-y tlie New York Times Company and Ihe St. Louis Post Dispatch. All rightfi for publication reserved tliroughrut tho world. Wireless by the New York Times.