Evening star., 1948-01-02
Starvation Threatened
Rome Biologists on
Antarctic Aedge Trip
By Mrs. Finn Ronne
North Amsrjeon Nsw,popey AIlionss


Rome geological sledge party re-
turned to this base three days ago
after q 90-day trail journey, 20 full
days of which. were spent entirely
on geological research. Here is the
report of DR.. Robert l.. Nichols, head
Of the geology department OF Tufts
College, who was in charge Of the
expendition, and his assistant,
Robert Dodson.
The party left here September 70.
accompanied by Kevin Walton and
DR.. Richard Butson of the neighbor-
ing British expedition, Base E, OF the
Falkland Islands Dependencies Sur
vey. as q supporting group. Fifteen
malemutes and Siberian huskies
drew two sledges with more than
l,200 pounds of man and dog food.
fud and personal and scientific
equipment. The British team car
ried 800 pounds Of the American
load.
A seal was killed near Terra Firma
Island and was cached there with a
supply of man food for the return
trip.
Mushroom Island Visited.
Mushroom Island, So miles away
and never before visited, was reached
on the seventh day out. There the
Britons turned back for Stonington
Island as had been prearranged. d.
After working for day there and
leaving man-and-dog-food caches,
Nichols and Dodson turned south
west for Alexander Island.
The next seven days were the
hardest Of the trip. The tempera-
tslre dropped to IS degrees below
zero. Travel was painfully slow
and relaying was necessary because
Of deep fresh-fallen snow, brash
fields and iceberg mazes.
Alexander Island was reached
October Is. The great snow-cov-
cred mountains, the huge slopes OF
crsvassed glaciers, the quiet white
clearness Of the region, added to
the fact that they were the first
humans to camp there, impressed
them both deeply.
But they had to hurry II miles
south, along the Alexander Island
coast. to keep q rendezvous with a
plane which was bringing them 500
pounds of equipment and supplies.
so Pound Cache Left.
A S00-pound cache was left at
the first spot, carefully marked by
trail flags and an eight-foot bamboo
pole flying Tufts, Harvard and
Exeter pennants. This was their
largest and most important cache.
The plane was due October 18.
Nichols and Dodson reached the
rendezvous point the evening OF
October IT. However, a period OF
almost continuous snowfall, over
cast and poor visibility now set IN
which lasted for almost month.
II was impossible for the plane to
leave the main base. The sledge
paYty's trail radio broke and COM
munication With the base was stop
ped. Little geology was done as
there were no outcrops in the VI
cinity.
Their food began to get low and
to conserve it they ate seal meat.
Sometimes it was cooked In bacon
fat, ut other times it was boiled.
It was decidedly not good eating,
the two men reported. They were
constantly hungry-food became an
almost continuous subject of con-
versation and both geologists
dreamed of food almost every
night.
Snow AccumulateS.
What they called their starvation
diet" while laying up in their tents,
consisted of one cup of lemonade
and two cups of seal meat per day.
Meanwhile, the snow began to &C
cumulate and they began to worry
about the cache II miles to the
north: Had the bamboo pole been
blown over? Would the cache be-
come completely buried? Would
they lose it?
At last, on October 20, with food
for less than four days left, they
broke camp and headed for their
30o-pound cache II miles to the
north. Only one sled was taken as
1t was impossible to move both
without relaying and they intended
anyway to return to this spot.
Due to poor surfaces, low visibility
and heavy snowfall, 1t took them
three days to reach the vicinity of
the cache. They made camp mile
south of 1t as the dogs were too
tired to continue. After setting up
camp, Bob Dodson skied north to
the cache. It was agreed between
Dodson and Nichols that If he To-
Gated 1t he would shout and wave
his hand when he got within hail
ing distance of the camp on the
way back.
Eats Chocolate Quickly.
Nichols was cooking pemmican
when he heard the shout. Knowing
that there were IS pounds of man
food in the cache, he Immediately
reached into the food box, drew out
the last bar of chocolate and ate
1t hurriedly. for he was half starved.
Dodson had found that all the
trail flags were buried and only
AZ feet of the 8-foot bamboo pole
was visible. It was close CALL
-Four more days were spent wait
ing for the plane, geologizing and
killing seals for man and dogs. But
the bad weather continued and on
November with only IL days of
food left-they headed northeast
for the base.
Four days later. they arrived at
Mushroom Island, after travelling
17.7 miles under the midnight sun.
Within one hour after the tent was
set up and camp made, they heard
. plane. On rushing out, the geolo-
gists saw that they had been spotted.
Soon two beautiful red parachutes
blossomed out like huge flowers and
hoated slowly down on to the sea