Evening star., 1929-01-03
BYRD CELEBRATES
NEW YEAR ON ICE
WITH BEAN DINNER
Makes 25-MiIe Exploration
Journey Over Barrier
of AntarctiCa.
PECULIAR VISIBILITY
PUZZLES 0LD-TlMERS
Mountains Miles Away" Often
Mere Hummocks Few Feet
OFF, Party Discovers.
BY CoMDR. RICHARD E. BYRD.

BY COMDR. RICHARD E. BYRD.
By wireless 10 The Star end New York Times.
III CAMP ON ICE BARRIER,
Antarctica, January (via Bark City
of New York. January p. - Vaughan
and several hours ago returned here
to- our tent after 20-mile dog-team
trip of exploration.
We found Petersen and Balchen
preparing our New Year dinner.
Our meal consisted of pork and
beans. bread and butter, peanut but
ter and canned applesauce for dessert.
Strange as it may seem, no feast OF
wine, turkey and cranberry sauce
would have tasted any better, for we
were very hungry after our long jour-
ney over the snow; and now we would
not walk around the tent to get the
best dish that Broadway produces.
We drank the New Year in with sew
eral hot cups of tea. That is great
cold-weather drink and nothing could
be more satisfying.
Dogs Howl in Unison.
The only New Year resolutions
made was to wash the dishes for the
night: and new We are sitting snug
and comfortable, all happy in our little
four-man tent with the Eskimo dogs
curled up outside, sleeping after
heavy meal of dog pemmican.
Every now and then, apparently ac-
cording to some predetermined signal,
they all howl in unison, and then
they go back to sleep again.
We have temporary radio an
tenna up with bamboo mast stuck
in the snow, and Petersen is sitting
tapping away at the key, sending some
instructions and New Year greetings to
our saipmates on the City of New
York and to the members of the ex-
pediticn on the Eleanor Boiling in
New Zealand
The radio is one of the things that
at the moment impress me. The
wonder of the thing-that / can sit
out here on this God-forsaken hunk
of Ice in a small tent giving inStruc-
tionS for operations to my shipmates,
some of them 2T00 statute miles away;
:ld what comforting thing 1t must
IL. for these on the City of New York,
who but for the radio would certainly
be worried about US, since we diSap-
peared several days ago over the ice
into the haze that lies between us and
the ship.
Visibility Conditions Puzzle.
Another thing which at the moment
impresses me is the extraordinary con-
ditions of visibility that seem frequent
ly to exist down here. We just stepped
out of the tent and took look around
and could not prevent slight eerie
sensation, due to the imposSibility OF
Judging with the eye the distance. or
shapes of the snow covered areas that
surround US.
This great hunk of ice, the barrier,
on low part of which we are en-
camped, arises to the north, east and
south of us, in some places to about
200 feet.
We appear to be in kind OF bowl;
but it is impossible to. tell how far
away the rim of it is or where or how
the valley to the westward, through
which We came, meets and mergeS INTO
the barrier.
The few vague lines that can be
seen might be several feet away, or
miles away.
We glide over the surface with our
skis and all Of a sudden stumble over
a little upward slope that is Impossible
TO Sees ana WIlRn We IeGCH ACPASo-
sion we are sliding down in before we
know it is there.
All of this happens in broad daylight,
because, of course, 1t is nearly as hgnt
at midnight here as it is in midday.
Mountain" May Be Hummock.
We see in the distance mountain
of snow apparently miles of; but IN
a few minutes We reach this noun
tain and find it is snow hummock no
higher than our chin.
Again We see a pressure ridge ap-
pearing close aboard, but find it miles
of.
No one of us who has been in the
Arctic has experienced exactly this kind
of thing. and even the Norwegians VINO
have lived in the snow are remarKlng
about it.
But the weather is not always IKE
this. The sun has shone once or twice
and visibility is then remarkably good.
At such times one is impressed Win
the extraordinary forces that nature
exertS down here.
Great massive blocks of ice are
showed up on the ice barrier. by an
in1moyable area of (what must bel
land-locked ice, holding hundreds OF
miles of water-borne ice carried py
wind and current and other forces:
And then the bay here, whlcn Is
about fifteen miles square, is criss-
crossed with great blocks OF pressure
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