BYRD EXPEDITION SHUT IN BY ICE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18642, 20 December 1928, Page 1

BYRD EXPEDITION SHUT IN BY ICE.

HAVE NOT MOVED FOR HOURS, DECLARES COPYRIGHT MESSAGE.

(United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Received December 20, 11.30 a.m.) VANCOUVER, December 19. A copyright message from the By r rd Expedition, dated December 18, says: “ We are lying in a world of drifting white. For hours the ship has not moved. It is shut in by solid ice that stretches for many miles. It is snowing hard and so one cannot see more than fifty yards, and in the wind the snow sifts past us in a curtain that opens and closes, giving swift glimpses of tortured surfaces, which are quickly hidden. Overhead is a pale glow where the sun is trying to break through, but only succeeds in making a diffused light that hurts the eyes as they' . strain to pierce the obscuring drift. “ There is the fascination of the mysterious in this eerie concealment. It is not a haze or a mist, but an enshrouding, impalpable light that closes about us. When it opens for a moment we realise that our microcosm is not the limit of this frozen sea, but almost instantly that quick stabbing rift is blotted out and we are alone. “ What is ahead for us in the forbidden land we are approaching day and night? How have we been living in this grey silence, broken only by the whistle of the wind in the rigging and the whine of the dogs? Voices are lost in this vast emptiness. “ Every hour light and colour have changed, painting scenes which can never be forgotten. “ Before the snow there was a wind which lifted clouds of scurrydng drift from the surface of the ice and concealed the horizon. It changed its density constantly' and lifted up cakes and hummocks which pushed out in the gloom, then were swiftly hidden as if an opaque but invisible hand had swept down over them."—Australian Press Association.

WILKINS UNABLE TO HOP OFF FROM SEA ON POLAR FLIGHT.

’PLANE COULD NOT LIFT HEAVY LOAD. (Received December 20, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, December 19. A copyright message from Sir Hubert Wilkins says:— “ We made repeated efforts to get off the water with the aeroplane equipped with pontoons, but failed owing to the heavy load. We ran the ’plane four miles out before we abandoned the attempt. Meanwhile, by shovelling away the ice and snow, we have almost completed a land flying field, from where the next attempt will be made when the weather permits.—Australian Press Association —United Service.