Evening star., 1935-04-21

we could not see more than a few feet
ahead because of fog or drift.
We stopped once because the sur
face made us suspect crevasses, and,
when it cleared sufficiently so we
could look ahead, We found ourselves
facing one Of the most tumbled sur
faces I have ever seen. In q few
minutes more Of travelling We would
have been right in the middle Of a
huge field of crevasses, and I doubt
II we would have come out safely.
But We found our way around them
and. by luck, struck the only pos
sible path through them to the
plateau beyond. Later from the plane
I saw this pass and marveled at our
good fortune.
1T Is exciting work riding a tractor
in the Antarctic. Often the crevasses
are entirely hidden and the short,
heavy tractors could easily disappear
in one. We all fell into them and
were lucky not to kill anybody.
Tractor Takes Plunge.
"Once I dropped nearly 80 feet, or
so it seemed, and the tractor stuck
tail down. We had to cut away a big
ramp and pile snow in the crevasses
below the tractor so we could drive 1t
out. Another time we were travelling
parallel to a crevaSse without knowing
it, when one tread went in and the
machine tipped over until the top OF
1t hooked itself to the other edge
Knowing what was around us, it made
our hair stand on END sometimes when
the entire barrier surface would drop
with terrific rumble, as it sometimes
does.
I think, however, that a 4o-foot
tractor, made of duraluminum and
powered by different type Of motor,
would permit such safe surface travel
that the entire Antarctic could be ex-
plored quickly.
Our engine never froge up, because
we drained them every time we
stopped. but we frequently ran short
Of anti-freeZe solution, and once We
ran two tractors the last part Of the
trip with nothing but water in the
radiators and the thermometer around
minus IS. We covered those engines
up like babies in their perambulators.
And when fuel ran short We mixed
gasoline with kerosene. anti-freeze
and anything else We could get. Once
we used transmission grease in the
engine because We ran short Of oil.
2,OOo-Foot Cliff.
"And I won't forget IN q long time
the experience of making q new gas
ket for the crankcase because the oil
was leaking froze a finger on that
trip so that could see the bone where
the flesh cracked. But We drove that
tractor to within q few hundred feet
of Mckinley Mountain. and. on the
sea side, that mountain drops 1000
feet sheer into the sea.
I'VE nearly lost one of our men on
that trip-at least, We went of with
out him. I had arranged to turn the
tractor at a certain point to head for
home after passing the crevasses. He
was on the rear sledge. reading a COM
pass and telling me by lights on the
dashboard which way to bear to keep
on the trail.
THE contact points Of the electrical
switches froze, and I didn't get the
signal. He tried to run up ahead and
tell me, and almost made the tractor
through the soft snow when he be-
came tired and fell down. About 8
miles further stopped and the radio
man came running up from another
sledge. yelling that had left our
companion way back on the trail. He
was the weariest looking human being
I ever saw when We got back to him.
"One of our other exciting expert
ences was when We were flying over
the EdSel Ford range on our way back
to Little America. We found that.
beyond the range, there was an area
OF scattered mountain peaks looking
very much like the cones OF extinct
volcanoes sticking above the snow.
There were so many of them that it
was as II they had been tossed in
there by some ice god in a playful
mood
Far at the edge Of the sea coast