Evening star., 1950-09-13
Eight French Scientists
On Greenland Icecop
Will Remain Through Winter
In Laboratories Under Snow
By Thomos R. Henry

Eight French scientists now are buried
in snow in the middle OF the Greenland
icecap where they will remain isolated
through the winter, except for radio
contacts with Paris
The camp is $50 miles from the West
Greenland coast. It consists of com.
Portable house prefabricated in France
and weighing somewhat over two tons
which was carried piece by piece on
tractors over the ice. No chance was
taken on breaking the parts by para
chute drops. Scattered around this are
seven laboratories. All are buried in
the snow. The buildings are connected
by tunnels. so that it seldom will be
necessary for the men to come out in
the open, except for weather observa-
tions
This life under the snow is not un-
comfortable. according to the report Of
Paul E. Victor, director of the French
Polar Research Expeditions. Tempera-
lures in the tunnels seldom falls below
80 Fahrenheit although the thermom-
eter outside sometimes sinks to go and
there are almost daily recordings In the
minus 80s. The living quarters, heated
by kerosene stoves, are kept comfortably
warm, Mr.. Victor reports.
Equipment Flown In.
Aside from the house parts and more
delicate machinery, all the equipment
of this station was flown over the icecap
from the west coast of Iceland and
dropped by parachute. 1t is expected
that the men will remain at this station
until September. 1851.
Throughout the winter the eight
scientists will make daily observations
of weather and upper air conditions.
They are located almost precisely In
the center of the Northern Hemisphere's
cradle of winter storms. Enormous high
pressure areas build UP over the center
Of the icecap until they finally spill
over across North America, Asia and
Europe.
They also are making observations to
determine the thickness of the icecap.
This is variously estimated at from one
to several miles and it is unknown
whether the sheet is getting thicker or
thinner.
A new classification of mankind into
six primary races has been published
through the American Association for
the Advancement of Science by DR..
William c. Boyd of the Boston Univer-
sity School of Medicine.
1t is based on blood groups which are
controlled rather strictly by heredity and
it discards altogether such supposedly
superficial and changeable characteristics
as color of skin and shape Of head.
The most common classification Of
races has been into three color groups
black. white and yellow. These some
times are further split into red and
brown.
Based on Blood Factors.
DR.. Boyd's classification based on in
herited factors in the blood is:
Early European, now represented en-
tirely by the Basques of northern Spain.
European, representing the rest Of
the white race.
African or negroid. :-
Asiatic or Mongoloid, including most Of
the yellow race. It is debatable, the
report says, whether the majority of the
people Of India belong in this group,
among the whites, or in separate
group which cannot be classified because.
of lack of sufficient data.
American Indian, including all the
aboriginal peoples of North and South
America. --
Australoid. including all the black
tribes of Australia and adjacent islands
and probably the Ainu Of northern
Japan.
The American Indian, it is pointed
out, undoubtedly was originally Mon
golian but now differs markedly in
blood characteristics. These changes, suf-
f1cient to constitute distinct race,
must have sbeen acquired in the past
generations since the ancestors of the
race came to America from Asia.
Both the Australian aboriginals and
the Ainu come quite close to the white
race. with which they must be most
closely related. But they show suf.
flcient blood differences to justify plac.
ing them in distinct classification.