LIFE IN ANTARCTIC

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16914, 1 April 1929, Page 7

LIFE IN ANTARCTIC

WEIRD BARRIER SCENES STRANGE LIGHT EFFECTS (Australian and N.Z. Press Association. 1 (By Russell Owen.) (Copyrighted 1928 \y the New York Tivies Co., and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. All '■igllts for put Mention reserved through • out the world.) (By Wireless to the Now York Times.) RAY OF WHALES, March 29. The snu came up over the Barrier yesterday —a huge ball of yellow ami in spite of its slow journey along the horizon gave us a perfect day — one of those quiet, brilliant Antarctic days which enthrall the beholder.

The air—the purest in all tin world—was so crystal clear that distance was foreshortened and the eye leaped as if over only a few yards to far away ridges of snow glistening in the morning light. Tin sky was a thin blue, as if one could see into infinity—space far beyond tin range of ordinary vision. All around the horizon was a thin band of cloud which reflected the light as from ;, mirror.

There were strange shadows in this clear light of the late Antarctic Jay. So low was tire sun'that every small protuberance in the snow, every grouged out hollow and eroded hummock had its silver grey shadows. They stood out as if etched against the gleaming white of snow and the vast held about us drew in and contracted as, for the first time for many days, we were able to see the details of its surface—details 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 the encircling horizon that a shadow was moved as it' innumerable spotlights were t'ocussed on tiny figures on this vast and desolate stage. Then came the witchery of the Antarctic twilight, a dim half-light in which all things wore distinctly outlined and yet half concealed. Iho luminous distant horizon's chill grey of snow and cloud barred the moon to make a scene that touched you with a weird attraction, intensified by the deep silence of the dead land. One might as well stand on the lifeless moon itself. There would bo nothing more strange.