BYRD’S MEN ARE FATTER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 686, 11 June 1929, Page 9

BYRD’S MEN ARE FATTER

LIFE IN THE ANTARCTIC AGREES WITH THEM A RESOURCEFUL COOK UV RUBBEEE OWEN Copyrighted, 1928, by the “New York Times” company and the St. Louis "PostDispatch.” Ail rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to the “New York Times.” BAY OF WHALES, Sunday. "We weighed ourselves on a scale the other day and we found, much to our amusement, that nearly everyone in the Byrd expedition is getting fat. Several men tipped the scales at between 1701 b and 2101 b. It is all George Tennant’s fault. Our cook has so many tricky ways of cooking seal meat or whale cutlets that he makes nearly everyone like them. Seal flesh is as black as can be, but tender and with a very slight fishy taste. When George has some left over he fixes it up so that it looks like stewed truffles and tastes like nothing ou earth that one ever ate before. But it is good curried. Whale can be palatable even when it suggests whale too strongly. When one begins to crave for something else George will produce ham, roast pork or mutton stew. The dehydrated beans actually taste like string beans and some of the other vegetables are very good. TEMPERATURE LEAPS There has been a remarkable fluctuation in the thermometer, which has risen from 48 degrees below zero to 16 degrees above. This warm temperature was caused by the wind from the North, which brought the heaviest fall of snow we have had for some time. It felt queer to have our feet sink into snowdrifts again because the drifts are usually formed by high winds and the snow packs down so hard that one’s foot hardly makes an Impression. An overcast sky for a fortnight made it dark and difficult to walk’for any distance. Everyone is well, however, and so far the Polar night has not caused discomfort or irritability. There is only a fortnight to elapse before mid-winter. Then the sun will being its journey back again, but our coldest period will be in July or August.