WORK IN ANTARCTIC

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 April 1929, Page 5

WORK IN ANTARCTIC

SUBWAYS AND SHELTERS

I WINTER PREPARATIONS (Australian Press Association.) (By Cable—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (By Russell Owen, Copyrighted, 1929, by the “New York "Times” Company, and “St. Louis Despatch.” All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. . Wireless to “New York Times.”)

(Received April 3, 10.30 a.m.) BAY OF WHALES, April 1.

"“Down went the thermometer with a thump, forty-seven below zero, but the sun is shining, and shovelling and digging proceed just the’ same, despite frosted toes and noses, to - the tune of “Poor little snowpile, don’t you cry, you’ll be a big hole by and by. Grunt and heave, saw and shovel.’ ’ Eyebrows, whiskers, and edges of parka hoods are covered with rime. Breath is mounting in big clouds in the still biting air. Toes are congealing and mittens are so stiff with frozen perspiration that they are curved like iron grooves roiind the shovel handles. It is a case of shovel and heave, then halt while the frostbitten cheek is rubbed back to normal.

“Just now we are building a series of tunnels that would be model for the subway system Sydney is talking about. When they are finished, it will be possible to walk to the houses and obtain supplies without going outside. There will be a quarter of a mile of glistening channels of communication.

“While one group is working thus, the aviation party was putting the big Ford plane to bed for the winter. The men made a huge hole ten feet deep and with the help of the entire gang, pushed the huge fuselage in there with the centre section and wing motors mounted. Then they erected a wall of snow blocks around it. This building was the beginning of a new method of construction, which is now adopted by subway constructors, with the aid of ice saws, such as used to cut ice in ponds at home. They saw down and across, then lift the chunks of hard snow. This snow is so firm that it can be quarried like stone. It was the labour of two days getting this hole ready, and the mechanics and pilots did most of it. The mechanics, who have kept the planes going without faltering, on all these cold weather flights, Bubier Roth and Demas, have the most disreputable parka in camp, the penalty of working where there is hot oil. They lifted the blocks until their arms ached, and when they had finished, the big ship was stowed away in the hangar of snow, roofed over with snowcovered tarpaulin, and with room enough inside to permit them to work on the gas and oil lines and motors and other parts during the winter night. There isn’t a wind in Antarctica which, can get hold of enough of that structure to budge it. It is so carefully designed. “The next problem was the care for the dogs, so they would be protected in low temperatures. The dog drivers are the mainstay of this work, although the aviation men help them because to get enough kennels to hold eighty dogs is a tremendous task. Trenches similar to those used to connect the houses are being dug, radiating from the seal pile which is the food, supply. When a trench is finished,' holes are cut in the side for dog crates and then the whole thing is covered over with snow blocks, making a perfect hotel corridor. The dogs will be chained just far enough apart so they cannot fight and will be turned loose under the eye of their driver for a certain time each day for exercise.”

A DELAYED HONEYMOON. (Australian Press Association.) VANCOUVER, April 2. A bride who is to join her husband in New Zealand, and enjoy a honeymoon, almost a year after her marriage, sails on Wednesday morning by the Aorangi. She is Mrs L. W. Berkner, wife of the radio expert and aeroplane pilot with the Byrd Antarctic expedition, who was lent by the American Bureau of Standards, and has just transferred for duty in New Zealand. The co’uple were married last -May, and the husband left shortly after with Byrd.