Evening star., 1928-12-12

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hung down over the Eleanor Bolling's
stern and Capt. Brown was faced with
the severe task of taking in under the
handicap of rising sea and snow.
He headed out to sea TO get clear OF
the ice and began to work the haWSer
aboard with a winch.
A good deal of it was in when sud-
denly it slipped on the winch and be-
gan to wreath overheard like giant
snake, whipping about dangerously near
to those working at the stern. A loop
of it hit Charles L. Keeler seaman,
on the shoulder and knocked him down,
and only by an acrobat1c sonerSault
backward to the lower deck was he able
to save his life.
Charles j. McGuinness, the mate,
and another man dived over the side
and hung on to the rail by their hands
until with an angry Shrek, the thing
went overheard. Fortunately, it had
served it's purpose and was no longer
needed, as it had held through one OF
the most difficult towing tasks ever
undertaken. 4
Byrd Stunned by Fall.
Both ships then made their way
singly through the floating pieces of the
pack and bergs in a light that grew
steadily worse because of the snow. 1t
was necessary to veer to the east along
the edge of the pack to get around the
ice, and navigation was difficult. AT
one time we found ourselves between
the main pack and an enormous piece
of the pack, with bergs in 1t that
stretched for miles. THAT was the
worst pack ever saw" Comdr. Byrd
said. "I never saw it so high" Both
ships hurried to get out of the stretch
Of water between, for to have been
caught there would have been serious.
In the midst of this Comdr. Byrd, who
had been up almost continuously for
more than two days navigating, slipped
on the dack as he was coming out of
the radio room and fell SO heavily that
he was knocked out for moment.
He hit his hip and head hard, but
today he felt no bad effects from his
fall, he had been on deck at all hours
OF the day and night recently, finding
his way through the difficult waters.
Today we came around corner of
the pack into sheltered bay to wait
for an opportunity to enter the ice and
also take coal from the Eleanor Boiling
W AAAeSAS uP AOA WA1dt VIC 1ldFC uoC0 O1l
the way down.
We reached here Just in time, for
the barometer had been going down as
If the bottom had fallen out OF the
glass and had reached the low level of
1880, a mark which made William C.
Haines, the meterologist, exclaim with
wonder:
Never in all my years in the Weather
Bureau have I ever seen barometer
so low" he said. The vagaries of the
instrument in these ATTITUDES are COM
start source of interest to us all. for
the .confounded thing seems bent on
soaring us to death at times and then
nothing worthy of the drop happens.
4 See Whale ,Harpooned.
Just as we came into the bay today,
a tiny whaling chaser harpooned a
whale and gave us an idea of Che ex-
citement of hunting the biggest of all
animals.
These little boats, no bigger than New
York tugboat, have beautiful lines, are
fast and splendid sea boats and cruise
through the bowling seas and the ice
each year, manned by hardy, nom
chalant Norwegian sailors.
The men on the boat saw a whale
just as we came near and fired a har-
poon from the big gun in the bow. It
hit the whale as it dived in a smother