YES, IT’S COLD!

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 19 July 1929, Page 9

YES, IT’S COLD!

SEVENTY BELOW ZERO.

LIFE IN “LITTLE AMERICA”

UNIQUE EXPER I ENCES. By Russell Owen, copyrighted, 1928, by the ] "New fork Times” company and “St. Louis Post and Despatch.” All rights for publication reserved through the j: world. Wireless to “New York Times.” Received 1.15 p.m. to-day. , BAY OF WHALES, July 18. j The last fortnight has been the eold- | est we have had; in fact, the average . for July is the ('oldest ever reported . from the Antarctic, 50 below, as comj, pared will Amundsen’s 41 in August. . Eleven out of the first 13 days averaged 60 below, with one day touching 1 70, and that is cold. When it is calm 3 at 70 below there is no discomfort ini side or out for a short time if warmly . clad, for with our fur clothing only the t exposed parts! of the face suffer, and [ when the nose is warmed by the hand j ■ it soon becomes warm again. The only . trouble is that while warming the nose • the hand freezes. One feels a sudden ■ bite on the finger tips, as if it had I Been seized by a pair of tiny pinchers. jj When the wind blows at. all at low I temperatures, then, it is almost impos- ! sible to face it for more than a few minutes at a time. To-day, for instance, the temperature was 50 below, a temperature to which we have become accustomed while walking, but there is a ten mile wind, and that wind whins around the face and causes intense pain. The nose' continuallv suffers, and the cheeks are ( nipped as if by fire. Cold without | wind can be withstood, but cold with wind is impossible. Extreme cold does strange things. It is odd to stand outside and hear one’s breath as it freezes. The Barrier ] snow contracted sharply, and all about I us could be heard cracks and snaps ! where snow crystals have let go under contraction. It was weird, as if the houses were built on an unstable element that was moving beneath our feet. So small are those cracks that we have never seen any of them, except for a large crack just north of the camp. Bay ice booms like distant . guns at times, when large cracks ap- . parently run across it. The guy wires 1 <ju the antenna posts become as taut ' as harp strings, and hum when the 1 lightest winds hit them. It has a i curious effect on our lights, also on i the candles used under the meteoro- < logical balloons. They must be warmed < before they will burn outside for more i than a few minutes. Incidentally, e what is believed to be a record obser- t ration in cold temperatures was made i when a. balloon was sent up on the day < when the temperatures were 70 below l zero. The kerosene lanterns, when taken outside, freeze up, the mixture s of kerosene and gasoline becoming as t hard as ice. Rubber insulators on the 1 wires get so brittle that they break at v the slightest touch, and the porous r rubber crumbles. Yes. it’s cold, but t our coldest weather is abend of us r still. c In two months the sun will begin to p warm up this frozen land. It first an- n nears on August 2. and everyone is looking forward to seeing that com-1 n fort-able -old globe loom above the { t horizon. The light in the north grows) t a little stronger every day. ; v