PERILS OF THE ANTARCTIC

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 210, 9 October 1914, Page 9

PERILS OF THE ANTARCTIC

SIR DOUGLAS MAWSGN'S LECTURE. With marvellous simplicity of style Sir Douglas Mawson related again the story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition at the Theatre Royal last evening, his recital being received with immense satisfaction by a large audience. The general trend of his narrative, accompanied by motion and other pictures secured by Mr Hurley, was set forth in the report of last evening's lecture, but a few excerpts might not be out of place as illustrative of his engaging • style as he told of humorous incidents, or of his perilous adventures, a tale which rang j with the note of true heroism. I THE HUMOURS. "McLean was on the roof," said the. lecturer, speaking of the construction of the huts at headquarters; "McLean was on the roof when a gust of wind capsized him, and he fell. In passing he spread out his arms round the chimney, which carried away, and McLean and the chimney fell to the ground. Inside we didn't knqw what had happened, but Lieutenant Ninnis, always looking for the V.C., rushed out and grabbed the chimney." It was red hot. We always called that the championship. "Our'faces were protected with masks, but even inside these masks layers of ice were formed. Madigan on one occasion had cleared away practically aril of it, and was taking away a piece of frozen cheek until someone reminded him of it. It was quite easy to mistake a piece of frozen cheek for ice. '' We took it in turns to cook, and in that way we were supplied with a neverfailing variety of foodstuffs. Every cook " had his own ideas. The first year we lived on soda bread. One of the cooks forgot, once to put in the soda. He put the bread in the oven, but if*didn't rise, and we knew there was something up with it. He blamed it on the oven though, and wouldn't give the bread up for 24 hours. After that he threw it out into the blizzard, but one of the dogs brought it back and put it on the verandah. We never got rid of that loaf." THE'TRAGEDIES. ''The weather was calm and sunny, but it was short-lived. After taking ob- , servations I jumped on to my sledge and shortly afterwards passed over • a crevasse. I called out a warning to Ninnis, and saw him swerve round his dogs. Nothing more was seen of Ninnis or his dogs. We found a great gaping crevasse, with 150 ft down a dead dog and some remains of the sledge. Ninnis must have been killed instantly. We called for nine hours, but got no answer. We lost practically all the food, and had to kill one of the dogs straight away. It was either the dogs or ourselves. A few days after we wished ourselves many happier returns of the new year, and made a very clean job of the dog, Ginger's, skull. Mertz began to get depressed. ,We found it very difficult to sleep, and the night was spent in turning over one food dream after another. We became obsessed by the question of food. On the night of the seventh day Dr Mertz died. My first" feeling was that I should have liked to pass out myself, but the apathy wore off, and in spite of skinned feet and bad weather I plodded on, doing a few miles a day. Then I fell into a crevasse, swinging from the end of a rope. It took all my energy to get to the top, and when there I fell down again. I swung there for ten minutes, trying to make up my mind whether to slip out of the harness and , end it all. Then I thought how Providence had aided me before. In these circumstances one feels there ia very little left, and that one should make the best of what there is. The future is to come, and eternity is long enough; at its longest the first span is short enough. I got tor the top soinehow, and lay unconscious probably for a couple of hours, as I was completely covered with snow when I awoke. I prepared a very full meal, my first thought being what a foolish thing it would have been to die and leave the food. I had the idea for i some time of having more meals before 11 died. However, I struggled on -and constructed a rope ladder, so that when I fell into the crevasses it was easy to get out. .My spirits rose by leaps and bounds, and it seemed that Providence , really intended me to get through. Then j I came to a depot of food left by a party j in search of us that' morning. This was J again a matter of Providence, as I had I only about a pound of dog's meat left at the time. The food was my salvation. "