The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-04-03

dav as they prepared to return
to the base here and leave him IN
a one-room shack for the next
seven months.
His scientific experiment as the
worlds southernmost inhabltant
is TO continue until next October
seven months of darkness bur
led in a snow-covered shanty with
his instruments with which he IN
tends to study meteorological
conditions near the pole.
Byrd. reported by his tiny radio
set Friday morning that the seven
men who have been helping him
to set up the base 123 miles south
of Little America were leaving as
soon as the engine on a tractor
was repaired. When they and their
two red and black tractors have
finally crawled out of sight be-
vond the last rise of the rolling
ice barrier, the distinguished eX-
plorer will be alone in the rapidly
gathering gloom.
WILL BE ON OWN
It is difficult even for those at
I title America to comprehend the
full measure of this isolation that
Byrd has striven for passionate
". Whatever it's implications,
these things 1T least are appar-
! ont; it viii be isolation, he will
be on his own as few men have
been.
All the decorations he has won,
the honor he has been given, the
uyharc existence he has lived in
civilization, are not going to help
him start a fire at 70 degrees or
! more below zero, keep billiards
, from overwhelming his shack
! sunkcn in the drifts, keep drifts
from choking delicate instru-
ments, ice from collecting in the
gasoline-driven generator of his
radio transmitter or help him find
his buried shack if a storm over
takes him on one of the daily
walks that are his habit.
His life probably will amount
to a continuous struggle for exist
ence and unrelaxing vigilance
against fire, cold, and illness. Pos
sibly this is what has drawn him
to his long winters vigil. The sci
entific weather observations are
! important. but secondary to this
human struggle, it seems to those
! here.
Already the winter night in the
/ South Polar region is rising on all
sides. Yesterday afternoon, the
sun set at $3.50 p. M, a pale disc
sliding coldly through gray, va
porous clouds. There are now but
10 hours of daylight, and every
day this lessons.
Thursday night, a monstrous
full moon, grossly distorted by
refraction, lifted its weird bulk
above the horizon. 1t was the first
time that we had seen the moon
since March II. 1t sets again to-
night, but rises shortly and until
April Is will circle the sky.
The temperature shot swiftly
downward as winter approached
and fell to IS degrees below zero
this mornings degrees below
the March reading of the frs
Byrd expedition here.
The hut which Byrd occupie!
alone was constructed especial!
to withstand great pressure o,
snow drifts and high winds. i
was built by Ivor Tinglof. master
carpenter of Melrose Highlands
Mass, on specifications drawn VI
by Victor G. Czegka, warrant of
ficer in the U. S. marine corp
and master machinist.
The shack is rectangular il
shape, Is feet long, 9 feet wide,
feet high. 1t was made of section
so shrewdly fitted that when pu
together one is sensible of the al
between squaShing out. The wall
, are four inches thick.
: The shack has little furniture
There is a folding bunk agains
a side wall. In the opposite corne
is a light table covered with ply
{ wood. A special cabinet was bull
for the radio equipment. Byr,