Evening star., 1926-04-26


hydrogen tanks.
This might be detached planet. so
isolated and yet so self-containing is
it, The contrasts are bewilderins.
One turns from the blue glaciers.
and the ice before them. where the
seas play tn steep white mountains, to
snow-white Sulls wheeling like ghost
birds against a black and gloomy
sky. to mechanics toiling in jumpers,
to Italian riCgers climbing a great
steel mast. TO the vast green bulk OF
thp hangar. and everything seems
strangely unreal. Aloof and silent,
an invasion.
Tracks Are Excavated.
But it is one of the busiest places
in the world. For two days, in snow
storm which at times blots out the
hills behind a mysterious curtain
which is the end of the world and in
a bowling wind men have been work
ing feverishly. digging places in the
snow around the mast for the hydro
gen tubes and eXcaVating the railroad
tracks from the dock to the mine and
a spur to the hangar so that the
tubes may be taken in. mine cars.
Three locomotives had been tucked
away for the Winter and their efforts
will soon be added to that of the
tractor.
Every one has taken part in the
shovelinC. 1t is now about half done.
Nearly 1000 tons of supplies shipped
here must be moved in a week, but
these workers. caressing aching backs
and hliSt cred hands, swear more than
ten times that amount of snow has
been shifted.
The only unforgivahle thing here Is
to be idle. If a box is to he carried
or log lifted, every one takes hand
Uninitiated Face Problems.
Carving boxes and barrels to the
kitchen where Bertha and Clara. prize
cooks of the expedition, prepare meals
fit for Vikings, is a task in which all
joyfully participate.
A 150-pound sugar barrel in the
snow presents a problem to the un-
initiated that would puzzle Archimedes.
and the experience of picking up A
50-pound butter tub, missing ones
footing and rolling 10 feet down
snowbank with the tub clasped IN
his arms is a severe blow to personal
dignity. After the tub is lifted off
his chest one rises frosted. to be
greeted by shouts of laughter over
another mishap to a tenderfoot.
Probably never before have so many
men, such intense effort, so much
money, such complicated apparatus,
been directed toward a, polar eXplora-
ton, and all this energy and expense
is to enable IA men that is the largest
number permitted aboard) to spend 90
hours in the air over the Arctic basin.
The time IS didiculously small. COM
pared with the effort of long months
spent by Peary, Nansen. Amundsen
and others in former polar journeys.
II was originally planned to have Is
men aboard the Norge during the
VOYAGE, but the necessity of carrying
every possible drop of gasoline com
pelled Amundsen to reduce the
number
Many Go to Island.
The advance guard of outsiders is
already arriving. The indications are
that Kings Bay vii! soon have more
ships off her dock than ever before.
A ship bearing German cameraman
arrived last night. The gunboat
Heimdal arrived today, also the
Hobby, and then soon Comdr. Byrd S
ship. Rumor has it that another
cameraman is bringing a plane to fly
to land with pictures after the Norge
makes her flight.
Probably a. few others will arrive.
and a traffic squad will be necessary
to keep people from falling over each