ANTARCTIC SHADOWS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 April 1929, Page 5

ANTARCTIC SHADOWS

SOME STRANGE SCENES A PERFECT DAY. SILENCE OF A DEAD LAND. By Bussell Owen, copyrighted, 1928; by the "New York Times" company and "St. Louis Post and Despatch.” All rights for publication reserved through the world. Wireless to "New York Times.” BAY OF WHALES, March 29. The, sun came up over the harrier yesterday like a huge ball of yellow, and in its slow journey along tho I horizon gave us a perfect- day, one of ; those quiet, brilliant Antarctic days which enthrall the beholder. The air, the purest air in all the world, was so crystal clear that- distance was foreshadowed and the eye leaped ns if over only a few yards to far-away ridges of snow glistening in the morning light. The sky was thin blue ns if one could see into an infinity of space fni' beyond the range of ordinary vision. All around the horizon was a thin hand of cloud which reflected the light as from a mirror. There wore strange shadows in this clear light of a bite Antarctic day. So low u:is the sun that every small proturberance in the snow, etfory sharp j line of sastrugi, every gouged and liol- | low and eroded hummock had its silver grey shadows. They stood out as if etched against the gleaming white of the snow, and the vast field about us drew in and contracted as, for the first time for many days, we were able fo see the details of its surface, details j usually lost in the obscurity of diffused light under an overcast sky.

But the oddest shadow of all was that around us as we walked, for so great was the reflection from tho encircling horizon that a shadow was cast on all sides, and one moved as if ill numerable spotlights were focussed on tiny figures in ibis va-sl and desolate stage. ... Then came the witchery of the Antarctic twilight, a dim half light in which all things were distinctly outlined and yet half concealed. The luminous distant horizons, the chill grey of the snow, and the cloud-barred moon make a scene that touches yon with a weird attraction that is intensified by the deep silence of a dead land. One might as well stand on the lifeless .moon itself, for there would he nothing more strange.