Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-02
BYRD MEN WATCH
! BARRIER BREAK
SleepiIy View Contented
. Seals at Play as Weather
Turns Warmer.
BY RUSSELL OWEN.

BY RUSSELL OWEN.
wireless to The Star and New York Times.
LITTLE AMERICA. Antarctic. De-
cenber 30.-The bay ice is beginning To
roll up on the eastern side and break
into lagoons of water in which the
seals play. The last two weeks have
been unusually warm and for three
DAYS now we have had hours when
the sky overhead is clear and the sun
snnes down with midsummer warmth.
The men wander around on the snow
without caps or gloves. wearing glasses
to protect their eyes from the brilliant
light. They sit on boxes basking in
the sun sleepily in odd moments and
sometimes some one can be seen
Sbretched on an engine crate browsing
in the grateful warmth.
This weather has played all sorts of
prankS with the ice. The high pres
sure ridges have toppled over and great
sheets of ice 10 feet thick have slid
ever the top of adjoining cakes on the
other side of a pressure line.
The waves of pressure, like frozen
waves of the sea, wide and symmetrical
making perfect arches, have risen
higher and higher until in walking on
them one goes UP a hill 10 feet high
and descendS into an equally deep hol-
low on the other side, the bottom of
which may be beneath the water level.
Forming of Inshore Lakes.
The elasticity of this ice is aston
ishing. Ten feet thick, il will bend
In an arc that makes a perfect semi
circle before it fractures. The tops
OF the waves are unbroken and smooth
until one day the pressure becomes too
great, the lower sides are pushed in
and the arch cracks open at the top.
This process takes place also at the
bottom of the waves and, when they
break, water rushes up through, bring
ing with it masses of smashed ice
which floats to one end and leaves an
open lagoon Of clear, still water in
which seals float lazily and pay little
attention to the curious ones who stroll
from camp to stand beside the pool and
watch them.
There is one Of these large pools
Just outside our inlet, a little more
than a half mile from camp, and others
along the edge of the cape at the en-
trance to the inlet. The whole mass
Is smashed and filled with holes full Of
water.
Factor I'm Loading Of Ships.
North Of the inlet cape. along the
eastern side of the Barrier, all the
way out to the open sea at the mouth
OF the bay the pressure fee is forced
up to tremendous heights and broken |
so that large pools of water lie between |
It and the Barrier. There is also a |
large crack which runs across the bay |
not far from camp.
All these signs Of breaking I'D have |
been watched with great interest, for |
on what happens to the bay depends |
IN large measure the method of loading |
the ships. If the ice does not go out |
and stays as it is now, it will be a |
tremendous task to get the planes
aboard. And, although there has been |
all this breaking on the eastern side |
OF the bay, the central part and the |
western side are as smooth and I'M
broken as during the Winter.
Just why the pressure all is toward |
this side and is apparently more sub !
lect to influences of current and tide |
. one OF the many puzzling things
ABOUT the Bay of Whales and, although
there have been as many theories pro-
pounded as there are men in camp,
there is no assurance which one II any
OF them is correct.
Giant Berg Towers Over Barrier.
On the edge of the bay ice. 8 miles
north of camp, huge berg has drifted |
N on the eastern side of the bay. It |
ACoAAJ LOU 4CCb III air, nucn l
nlgner than the Barrier here, and it |
must have come from some point where |
the Barrier rises to point higher than |
we have ever seen 1t.
It has rested there for days, held by |
the current, glistening white in the !
summer sun. Between it and the Bar |
rier Is an expanse of open water where |
the whales blow as they roll, penguins |
CHATTER along the edge and seals bask. |
lifting q lazy head from the ice as a |
Killer whale, their most dangerous en-
envy, comes near by and blows, or lifts ,
himself half out of the water to look |
over the edge of the ice.
Tne seals seem to know that the ice /
Is stu thick enough for them to be safe. |
ana they are too fat and contented to |
move.
This late heavy. ice, however, is hav-
fnga serious bearing on the problem of |
getting out and starting home. Appar-
entity. 1t Is just as difficult to leave the
Barrier at times as 1t is to reach it be-
cause OF the ice pack to the north which /
this year Is unusually wide and thick,
The whalerS have reported that It is
the heaviest pack they have seen in
many years, and 1t is more than $50
miles wider than 1t was last year.
Then it stretched across our path
nom latitude SO to latitude ~, $50
miles Of almost solid pack. But this
year 1t reaches from latitude 81 to lati-
tude "a. three degrees further, or 45O
miles OF pack to be penetrated. So
heavy was the ice that one of the first
whalers to go through lost a chaser in
the crush.
Anxiety for Ships to Get Through.
This condition is delaying the start of
our ships from New Zealand, for it was
hoped that they would have been on
their way long before this. 1t is proba-
Die that the bark City Of New York will
start in few days and sail to the ice
pack to save COAL and that the Eleanor
Boiling, which is steel ship, will follow
her some days later.
They will meet at the hedge Of the ice
and come through together for mutual |
safety, and it is hoped that by the time
they reach this point the pack will have
been broken up sufficiently so that they
viii be able to get through in a reason
ably short time and with safety.
Most ships have been able to get |
through fairly easily after the middle
OF January. At least We hope so, for,
with the lob done, everybody wants to
get horne. and it still seems long way
of. 1t will be a great day when a mast
head appears down the bay.
0Copyright. 1929. by the New York Times
co; and the 81. Louis Post-Dispstch. All |
rgnts tor publication reserved throughout /
the world