LIVE IN AN ICE-CAVE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9757, 24 March 1914, Page 6

LIVE IN AN ICE-CAVE.

INTERESTING ANTARCTIC EXPERIENCES. LONDON. Jan. 30. Surgeon G. M. Leviek, R.N., one of tlie northern party in Captain Seott'e expedition, related his experiences from a medical point of view before the members of the Royal Society of Medicine. Dr. Levick told how sii of them spent a winter in an ice-cave of their own digg'.ng on the shores of Robinson's Bay. We hit on the idea of burrowing below ground, 6aid Dr. Levick, because, with a perpetual hurricane blowing, life above ground was intolerable. The cave undoubtedly saved our lives. It was hewn out of clear blue ice, and took a long time to make, but it was an adequate protection, and less uncomfortable and unhealthy than might be supposed. We had 'only six weeks' provisions. and realised that we should have to live on seal meat during the greater part of the seven months in front of us. We were lucky in getting a number of seals, which are scarce during the winder. and also about ninety old penguins which were moulting, and had, consequently, delayed their migration. The penguins had not an ounce of fat on them, but they afforded a pleasant variety of diet.

We lived exclusively en seal meat for a whik l . until we managed to get used to blubber. The blubber helped us to lorget our groat craving for sugary foods, but every now and then we revolted against it, and could not touch it. We had great difficulty in cutting the seal meat, as it was as hard as iron. We broke one of our ice axes upon it, and eventually had to fall back on a geologist's chisel and hammer. We used an old biscuit tin as a "stove and dripped blubber into it. It took the cook a whole day to prepared the evening meal. We scarcely dared to go out at all. Every time we did go out we got frost-bitten. Ventilation troubled us a good deal until we bored a chimney. One morning after a blizzard we found that none of our lamps would burn. We tried to light a Primus stove, and then* a match, but these went out immediately. Apparently there was almost no oxygen left in the air. As soon as we dug a hole through the drifted snow the lamps flared up. The curious thing was that we experienced no discomfort. In a warmer climate we should probably have died. Another remarkable fact wa6 that none of us suffered from scurvy. The fact that we were all comparatively fit at the end of our imprisonment is a wonderful testimony to the value of a flosh diet. Our first meal after our escape was simply enormous. We ate fourteen biscuits and 21b of pemmican and oatmeal each, besides lard, butter and chocolates. One of the party could not lift his legs to ge't into bed. Yet we had no indigestion. v >