IN POLAR BLIZZARDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 288, 28 April 1913, Page 7

IN POLAR BLIZZARDS.

EXPERIENCES OP MR. FRANK WILD'S PARTY.

A GRAPHIC STORY.

Mr. Frank Wild, of the Mawson Antarctic Experition, and leader of the second party, gave further graphic details of the experiences of himself and his comrades when speaking recently at a farewell organised by the Royal Society in Sydney. ''One man cannot do much alone," said he, acknowledging the tributes paid, to the value of his work by Professor David. Mr. R. H. Cambage (president of the Society) and others. "Unless he has relidble comrades with him, he might as well stay at 'home. lam happy to say that I had seven as good men with me as are to be found anywhere. (Applause). ! Two of them I have threatened to take.away with me, but I am afraid it cannot be done. One of them is .about to take unto himself a wife, and I think she will anchor him in New South Wales. (Laughter and applause). ''As to the work of Captain Davis, of the Aurora, I may say that I do not know any other man who would hav» stuck to us so long, until we were able to land at the Shackleton Glacier. We did really go too far, and were actually on our return to Hobart when we got alongside this glacier, and found.a land-ing-place. We got all our material, 35 tons of stuff, on to this glacier in Ave days.

UNDER FIFTEEN FEET OF SNOW. "Our first sledging trip was made in' March. It occupied 26 days, but very little was accomplished. For 14 days out ;df the 26 we were in camp in our sleeping bags 'because of the weather, and 'for nine of those days we were in one blizzard, at a place 2000 ft above seailevel. So we had to allow the winter to pass before any more sledging was idone. There was much more wind at the first base than at ours; but, on the ■other hand, we had far more snow. The first blizzard we experienced covered the hut and all round to a depth of from 12ft to 15ft of snow. This gave us a lot of work in digging out, but later on .the accumulation of snow proved very useful, ;as we.dug a tunnel, and on either side of ,the tunnel we dug rooms, and here we !kept our ■■stores. I A NARROW ESCAPE. "The meteorological work had - to be tneglected on several occasions because I of the'blizzards, but Mr. Moyes kept at 'his woi'k a greatideal more than I should ihave expected anyone to do in such weather. It only means one step in a bad blizzard to lose a man entirely. Hoadley, on .one sledging trip, was nearly lost I (6ft from the tent. We heard liim shout,

:and shouted to him to let him know where we were. Finally he crawled in, with a mask over his face two or three inches thick. The snow near his face h«id melted, hut the blizzard had driven <w«r that and completely filled his helmet. Sledging began again on August 24 At .that time the daylight lasted from only 8 .o'clock in ithe morning till 4 in the afternoon, and the temperatures were very low. We recorded 43deg. below zero, much lower tlhan we had expected in that latitude. The minimum thermometer we took with us to a point about 2000 ft up, Ibut we did not bring it back, so it "is still there—and I don't know what it 5s registering." (Laughter). THE LODGES* BLIZZARD. Mr. Wild described the experience already recorded, in which, when they were returning from this trip in September, an avalanche came down abreast of the camp. They were all very much alarmed; Mr. I)<overs, he said, retained enough presence of mind to seize a food bag and run away with it. He had been chaffed over this incident, but, nevertheles, it was a very sensible thing to have done, as they would have had to go nine miles if that had been carried away. "Our tents," he went on, "were blown to pieces the following morning. The gusts must have been we'll over 100 miles, and Harrison was thrown clean over my head in one of them. We made a hole 3ft deep, Oft wide, and 20ft long, and in this we had to stay for five doys." Mr. Wild spoke of an eventful experience of the eastern sledging party, in being stopped by a blizzard which lasted 17. days—the longest anyone had yet experienced. The western sledging party had also worked under difficult conditions, but Mr. Dovers had in bis possession an excellent map which had been secured of the area between the base at Shacklcton Glacier and Gaussberg. This party had occupied 17 days on this trip, and had travelled 510 miles. ALOXE IN CAMP.

Moyes and ITarrison were to have been left at the base, but Harrison had volunteered to go on with Wild's party to {he spring depot and come back aione. When the spring depot was reached, it was found that the sledge had been torn out from its resting place by the wind and blown away, and the only thing they had to do was to take Harrison on with them. "If Moyes had not been a levelheaded man " said Mr. Wild, "we should not have done it; but in any case it was very awkward for him, and very uncomfortable, alone as he was in the camp. lie made quite sure' that Harrison had died when he did not return, and for all he knew the remainder of us might have died. He went out for six days on a lone search party—(applause)—but, of course, he realised that it was quite useless searching for anyone in that country, and had to return." .

Mr. Cambage, the president, explained that the object of the gathering was to welcome those members of the Mawson Expedition who were unable to. remain in Sydney for the Royal Society's annual' dinner the following week, and to express appreciation of the scientific work which that expedition was doing. NEW TERRITORY ADDED TO THE MAP. Professor David reviewed the work of the expedition, and spoke especially of the installation of wireless communication between Antarctica and Australia. Tt was little short of marvellous that at Woodford, in the Blue Mountains, he was able to send a message to Dr. Mawson. In passing, lie paid a tribute of praise to Mr. W. H. Hannam for what he had done in installing this system. Professor David spoke in glowing terms of Mr. Frank Wild's work, and highly praised Captain Davis, whom he described as a splendid Arctic navigator, worthy to take his place as the peer of D'Urvill'e, Franklin and Ross. It was a wonderful feat on the part of Davis and Wild to effect a landing on the top of an ice barrier over 100 ft above sea-level.

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