IN ANTARCTICA

Hokitika Guardian, 4 October 1929, Page 3

IN ANTARCTICA

SEPTEMBER. BLIZZARDS. (By Russell Owen—Copyrighted )92!. by the New York Times Company, and £>t. Louis Post Dispatch. All rights lor publigation reserved throughout the world. Wire'ess to New Yoik Times.) BAY OF WHALES, October 1. The month of September went out in. a roaring blizzard. It turned out to be our second coldest month, as the average temperature was 44 degrees below zero, 10 degrees colder than Amundsen’s average for September. Also® it was our only winter month when the temperature did hot rise above zero at any time, 2 degrees below being the warmest day. When the wind shifts to the north and blows in from thie. sea it frequently forces the temperature up for a time, hut in September those fluctuations have not been nearly so great as, they were in mid-winter. To-day the wind is howling outside and sucking draughts through thie tunnels and ventilators which affects the inside, although the houses are buried out of sight by snow. It is almost impossible to sec anything outside, and care must be used in going from one house to another ilest- one stray ’ from the path and be lost. But the "men have become somewhat 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, As a rule the top of the radio towers can he seen part of the way and when they are lost something else, a box or a well known drift, or a pole sticking up in the snow, serves as a new guide. But it is always interesting to walk, in thick weather. ' it is just a year ago to-day that Commander R. E. Byrd and several members of the expedition left New York on their journey south.