ANTARCTIC COLD

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 82, 3 October 1929, Page 9

ANTARCTIC COLD

AMUNDSEN'S AVERAGE

BYRD PARTY IN BLIZZARD

FIRST YEAR FAR SOUTH

United Press Association—By Electric Tel«Craph—Copyright. United Serrice. By Bussell Owen—Special to "New York Times."

BAY OF WHALES, ist October

The month of September went out in a roaring blizzard. It turned out to be our second coldest month, as the average, temperature was 44deg below zero, .lOdeg colder than Amundsen's average for September. Also, it was'our only winter month when the temperature did not rise above zero at any time, 2deg below being the warmest day.

When the wind shifts to the north and blows in from the sea it frequently forces the temperature up for a time, but in September those fluctuations have not been nearly so great as they were in midwinter.

To-day the wind is howling outside and sucking draughts through the tunnels and ventilators, which affects the inside, although the houses are buried out of sight by snow. It is "almost impossible to see anything outside, and care must be used in going from one house to another lest one stray from the path and be lost. The men have become used to that now, and although they wander to one side they have learned to halt for a minute when they temporarily lose their sense of direction and hunt around for a landmark from which they can get their bearings. Aa a rule the top of the radio towers can be seen for part of the way, and when they are lost something else —a box or a wellknown drift or pole sticking up in the snow—serves as a new guide, but it is always interesting to walk in thick weather.

It was just a year ago to-day that Commander Byrd and several members of the expedition left New York on the journey south.

[Copyright 1928 by "New York Times" Company and "St. Louis Post-Dispatch." All rights for publication teserred throughout the world.]