EXCITING DAY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 19, 24 January 1929, Page 11

EXCITING DAY

ICE BREAKS UP

BYRD EXPEDITION

SHIP HAS TO MOVE

(By Russell Owen.—Special to "New York Times.") (Received 24th January, 11 a.m.) BAY OF WHALES, 22nd Jan. Yesterday was another day of excitement, as the edge of the bay ice, to which wo had been moored, began to break up under a strong swell. Huge cakes of ice, five or six feet thick, cracked away under our ice anchor and the ship began to move, where all had been security an hour before. There were four dog teams alongside when tho ice began, to let go and the drivers urged them back across the widening crevices until they, were at a safe distance. Then tho ice anchors had to bo dragged aboard, which was another difficult task. Parker, Both, Erickson, and Harrison went over on the ice from the ship and lugged the ice anchors across swaying boards, which bridged the openings between the ice cakes so as to make them fast farther in. Those anchors weigh two hundred pounds, and are not the easiest things to handle.

' After everything had been secured the ice broke again, and it was decided to seek another position. Two dog teams went along the edge of the bayice to pick. up some dog crates which had been set ashore days ago, and others followed the: ship as it moved over to the west side of the bay near the Barrier, where it was hoped that shelter might be found. The lead there was not very deep, so after coming back to a point where enough coal could bo put ashore to load two dog teams, one of which was taken out by Parker, who had turned driver temporarily, the ship again prepared to move. It was surrounded by ico floes by this time, some of them enormous ones, which had broken off near our former j position, and the men went over the side to fend them off, as they smashed up against tho side of the ship and threatened to grind into the rudder. Joe Bueker ran out on tho edge of a I big cake to get some pictures of the ship nosing into the ico to hold its position temporarily, and both he and Vandervecr had a busy day! Byrd decided to go eastward this time into a load which wo explored the night before when we met the killer whales. Position was found there by forcing the ship into some broken drift ice, so that its bow is now resting against the edge of bay ice, which is somewhat thinner here than where we were before, but where we are sheltered from the wind and swells by the surrounding bay ice and the Barrier, now lying about threequarters of a mile to the oast. CURIOUS SEALS. When wo arrived, we could see a speck far out on the bay coming toward us, and we knew that it must boone of tho single-sled dog teams; probably Berlin, who has a habit of wanj dering in at night. As the team approached, a young seal slipped out' on the ieo and humped itself along, stopping now and then to rear up and look at us. The curiosity of animals down here—the seals, gulls, and chiefly tho amusing penguins—is ono of the most "amazing things about this strange land. They have never seen man and have no fear of him ov of anything outside their natural enemies, killer whales and sea leopards. It is seventeen years since men were here, and that stay of [Amundsen's was tho only other time that this corner of tho lost continent was ever inhabited, so that oven the seals are tame, and this ono was greatly excited by our arrival. He slid over cracks and on to moving cakes between us and the solid ice to get a better | look. When Berlin arrived*' alongside after making his detour from tho old trail, a seal headed for the dog team, apparently thinking the dogs were other seals. It was not until the seal was only a few yards away from them that it found that they barked somewhat differently, and it scrambled to safety on a little cake of.ice and looked serenely around before taking a final dive out of sight. Yesterday morning Van got a picture of a seal and the lead dog of a team actually snapping at each other, the seal showing no sign of fear. Equally strange it is that tho dogs seldom chase penguins, seals, or gulls. A huge iceberg has been drifting in from the north-west towards us for several days in defiance of all that wa,s known about currents here, and all that we .have observed of the drift of pack ice. That drift is generally toward the north-west. There must be a deep ! counter-current which is pushing it toI'ward the east wall of the bay. i [ DRIFT OF PACK ICE. j | The drift of pack ice by us in the : last ten days has been an. absorbing I phenomenon. At one time we were completely cut off from the sea by j the heaviest pack we have seen. It must have come out of that vast area to the east into which no ship has ever been able to penetrate. These huge! cakes and uplifted pieces of pressure ice marching by slowly are often, beautiful and impressive. I Tho changes in temperature here aro I

very unusual, and have interested us greatly. Yesterday the sky was overcast, and it was so warm that it rained for a few minutes. The temperature to-day reached 42 dog., arid it is hot. On the bay ice it is so warm that the men are working in their undershirts loading bags of coal on the sleds. The sea between the pack in which we are lying and the Barrier is like a sheet of glass, broken only, by the rising of whales, and the whole magnificent landscape sparkles under a brilliant sun, yet only a few nights ago it was three degrees above zero. During the night every rope on the ship was covered with the glowing crystals of hoar frost. STORMY WEATHER. Although Amundsen recorded only two storms while he was here and very little bad weather in the summer, we have had three storms alroady. In every way this unloading problem is turning out to bo one of the things which make the expedition leaders grow grey hair. There are a number of ways in which it can be done, however, and it will bo done. Tho Eleanor Boiling is now in the pack ice, which is reported open and the weather good, so that with caution she is'being worked through the many leads. If the ice pack does not hold her tip she should be hero in a' few days.

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