SPRING AT HAND

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 5, 1 October 1929, Page 11

SPRING AT HAND

BRILLIANT SUNSHINE AT BAY OF WHALES

BYRD PARTY HUNTS FOR SEALS

VALUABLE FRESH MEAT SUPPLIES SECURED

(United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Cony right.) Australian Press Association. (Special to Press Association from the Byrd Expedition, by Russell Owen.)

Bay of Whales, September 29.

The blizzard of the last few days has been followed by an unexpected cold spell, the thermometer hovering between fifty and sixty below zero. The sky has been clear for two days, and the sun has been shining brilliantly. The warmth can be felt when facing it, but it had little effect in this cold drift of air from the south, which yesterday extended as high as the meteorologists could trace it with their balloon. There were many signs, however, that spring is not far off, because in the brief interval between the blizzard and the cold wave it was so warm that the seals came out on the Bay ice in great numbers.

Men who went far out on Bay Ice towards the sea until they got within a mile of the curtain of sea smoke beyond which they could see nothing, saw hundreds of seals basking in the sun. They were mostly found in new ice, which extends to a point about fourteen miles north of the base to a point where the Bay ends at the East Cape of the Barrier. This ice is broken and heaped up by pressure, but holes are left, and these are the places where the seals come up to breathe and crawl out when the weather is not too cold. A lot of them are crab-eaters, which are the best to eat. One of them was killed and brought back to camp. It tasted good, very much like ordinary rump steak when cooked well with dehydrated onions. It is valuable, as is all fresh meat, for its vitamin contents, and the men who will go out on trail will be able to get well stocked up with it before they leave.