Evening star., 1940-12-01
Men al Little America
Set 10 Leave for
u. 5. in Few Weeks
Color Film Token by
Expedition Members
Is Shown Here
BY w. H. sHIPPEN, Jr.

The men on the ice are getting
impatient, now that spring is at
hand.
They came through the long Ant
arctic winter in good health, all
So of them, but, to use their own
words, boy, will we be glad to see
our ships come in!"
This word gets through by short
wave from Little America, and from
the east base 1,500 miles away on
rugged Palmer Land. It's q matter
of weeks now, instead of months, for
the men Of the United States Ant
arctic expedition.
About mid-January the men on
the barrier will be straining their
eyes to be the first to see the Bear
poke her top masts over the rim
of an ice-littered sea. The North
Star, in all likelihood, won't be far
behind. The ships will remove the
men and start for home about
April l.
Bear Nears Pago Pago.
The Bear, which sailed from An
napolis a month ago, after an over
haul in Philadelphia, is now nearing
Pago Pago in American Samoa, and
the North Star will sail from Seattle
in a fortnight, going to Little
America by way Of Hawaii and New
Zealand
The ships will meet at Little
America to take of personnel and
materials before going on to the
east base to break camp.
Some of the veterans Of previous
Antarctic expeditions were in an
audience Friday night at the first
showing of a color film taken by 10
members of the present expedition.
The film was shown by Roger Haw-
thorne, former Associated Press re-
porter, who accompanied the expe-
dition last winter as public relations
officer, and is leaving today to join
the North Star in Seattle.
The film was composite of the
work of both amateurs and profess
sionals. The audience applauded
its spectacular color, human interest
and natural history recordings OF
penguins, seals, sea birds and whalAs
in their Antarctic habitat.
The Aim showed, among other
things, how great emperor pen
gums and the lesser Adele species
stand, sit, walk, run and toboggan
on their stomachs down snowy
slopes into the water.
First Color Record of Emperors.
1t is perhaps the first and only
color record of the rare emperors
at home in the ice and snow of the
Antarctic. The penguins had no
fear of men, only a slight annoy
ance. They pecked at men and dogs
who got too familiar, and otherwise
either ignored them or regarded
them with mild curiosity. The big
emperors rested in the snow on
their stomachs, and used long beaks
to push themselves upright.
Coasting on their stomachs, they
used their feet like propellors to
speed their progress through the
snow.
The seals-crab eaters and the
rare leopard variety-showed more
curiosity than fear of men. They,
too, tobogganed through the snow
on their stomachs, and seemed TO
enjoy 1t.
One seal showed disposition to
romp with Hickey, the sled dog born
at Little America in 1885 on a pre-
vious expedition.
Hickey refused to harm his play
mates, although he and the other
sled dogs subsisted on seal meat.
Not a Bad Sailor.
Hickey, incidentally, tumbled on
the North Star in Boston before the
ship sailed in November of 1899.
A member of the crew dived into
the icy harbor after him. The
husky, however, wasn't a bad sailor
just excited at the leave taking.
Later films showed him walking