Evening star., 1947-03-30
Nays Exploration of Anarctica Surpasses Expectations

expectations
,design for living. A hundred million
years of evolution have made him
an emotionless sword of destruction.
In the struggle for survival, how
ever, other animals of polar seas
and icecap have developed means
of outmaneuvering him. Fast-scoot-
ing penguins can dodge the killer
among the ice cakes. The momen-
tum of his great weight puts him
at the same disadvantage in chasing
the light, fast birds as handicaps
bull in chasing rabbit. The
silver-white crab-eater seal and the
ferocious sea leopard, nearest ap-
proach to the fierce whale as killer
in this part of the world, actually
have developed sufficient agility to
roll out Of his jaws from between
his teeth, if they are not chopped in
half at his first attack. Nearly ell
seals captured show signs Of terrific
battles.
Naturally the appetite Of the mon
ster is Unsuitable. In the stomach
of one specimen, 1t is recorded.
were found the remains Of Is por-
poises and 81 seals. A herd Of the
defenseless little porpoises, known as
white whales, sometimes is cornered
in an ice bay by a herd Of orcas
and literally torn to shreds.
The killer has brains to direct
his slashing teeth. He is the crafti-
est creature of the seas, excluding
seals as essential land animals.
/ But the orca must chase his prey
sometimes even over ice. Fortu-
nately for all other living things in
the Antarctic, he still is confined
physiologically to sea habitat, has
no means of locomotion on land and
can live only a few moments out of
water. He appears, however, to have
started in the direction of an am
phibian existence-the first of the
cetacean race to break the bonds
forged by a hundred million years
of adjustment to an ocean environ
ment. He has reached the point
where he can stand upright in the
water, stick his head far into the
world above and survey the sur
roundings.
A Narrowing Experience.
There are two recorded instances
of this. One sent a shiver up the
spine of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott
just before starting his Inflated trek
to the South Pole. A member of
his party had ventured on thin ice
with two dogs and had been spotted
by herd of orcas. The next mo-
ment, Scott records IN his diary,
"the whole foe under the man and
the dogs heaved up and split into
fragments. One could hear the
booming noise as the whales rose
under the ice and struck it with
their backs. Whale after whale rose
under the ice, setting it rocking
fiercely. Luckily Pointing kept his
feet and was able to fly to security.
BY an extraordinary chance the
splits had been made around and
between the dogs so that neither of
them fell into the water. Then it
was clear that the whales shared our
astonishment, for one after another
their huge, hideous heads shot ver-
tically into the air through the
cracks they had made. AS they
reared them to height Of or
feet it was possible to see their tawny
head markings, their small, glisten-
ing eyes and their terrible array of
teeth, by far the largest and most
terrifying in the world. There can
be no doubt that they had looked up
to see what had happened to Pom
ting and the dogs. The fact that
they could display such deliberate
cunning. that they were able to
break Ice at least 21a feet thick and
that they could act in unison was
revelation to us. 1t Is clear that
they are endowed with singular in
telligence."
The yellow gladiator truly is mons
arch of the ice-fllled seas. He is so
big, swift and deadly that no other
living creature-except man-would
dare face him. So far as man is
concerned, the great beast Is not
worth hunting for gain and too dam
gerous to hunt for sport. Even
deadly bacteria and viruses have not
found him out in these chill waters.
He is too bulky and difficult to han
die to be desirable as museum
specimen.