PERILOUS PATHS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 117, 13 November 1929, Page 11

PERILOUS PATHS

ANTARCTIC ICE TRAIL

ADVANCE. PARTY RETURNS

ONE NAEROW ESCAPE

Dnited Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (By Russell Owen.—Special to "Ifcw York Times.") (Received 13th November, 9 a.m.) BAY OF WHALES, 11th Nov. Dr. Gould's geological party, headed for the Queen Maud Range, arrived on Saturday at Depot No. 2, which is 80 deg. lOmin south. Soft snow and poor visibility made the going terribly hard for two days. Four grimy-faced, bewhiskered men came up the slope to the camp yesterday, having travelled more than 400 miles on the Barrier, crossing twice an area of erevasses^ holes, and haycocks so dangerous that it echoed beneath their feet, and roared and growled around them while'they slept. They were the members of the southern supporting party/a little thinner than when they left,* but in perfect condition. Walden's grizzled gray whiskers made him appear even more of a trail veteran than he is. Braathen's beard curled in every direction, and the faces of Bursey and De Ganahl were burned by the sun, and on one of Joe's cheeks was a round blistered spot where he had been frozen. OVER HOLLOW ICE. They gave a graphic description, of one narrow escape from death. A valley stretched ahead of them, smooth and inviting, but suddenly it rang hollow. They halted and tapped if. Everywhere it seemed :> wide level roof of snow over some cavern, the extent of which taxed their imagination. They felt their way around the edge of it, hardly believing that it could be so large. It was as big as a city block. This whole covering sheet was apparently held up by snow pillars somewhere, or perhaps walls between tremendously wide crevasses. They worked their-way around the western edge of it, dodging between haycocks, and taking their sledges over narrow ledges running between deep chasms and holes, frequently on a slope from which they might have slipped into the depths below them, and at one point two open crevasses came together before them in the shape of an arrow, and on the point where it was bridged by snow they went across gingerly with holes- on either side. Many of these crevasses, and even some of the holes, fifty or a hundred feet ifide, were covered with a thin film of snow with a crack in it, through which they could look from the side at the black caves underneath. FOG FOLLOWS PASSAGE. Fortunately, they had sunlight, and could avoid these traps, which were large enough .to have swallowed the whole caravan. They had used seventy flags in two miles, going through this region, so winding Hvas the trail and everyone heaved a sigh of relief when they finally emerged. They turned back to look at it, and even as they did a fog began to form, and in ten minutes the whole area was blotted out. If they had waited a day longer they could not have gone through. "It was one of the most spectacular sights of the whole trip," said Walden, "to see that veil of fog settle down and shut out the awful mess of. broken ice." The rest%f their trip was fairly easy. They reached 81.45deg south, and laid down their last depot, and started back with light sledges.

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