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Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion At Victoria University College, Wellington, N. Z. Vol. 24, No. 4. 1961

Mcmurdo

Mcmurdo

The U.S. base, McMurdo, which houses 800 men in summer and 150 in winter, is two miles easy walk from Scott Base. Because of its size, it is arranged like a small town, with huts on either side of the streets and not joined by a "covered-way" as are the huts at Scott Base. Prices of most goods at the McMurdo ship's store are very attractive; for instance, a £25 camera costs $23 and 200 cigarettes cost seven shillings. There are six bars at the base where six o'clock closing is unknown and where memorable parties occur each night of the week. However, no party compares with the Scott Base farewell to Endeavour, which lasted, more or less, non-stop for 20 hours, starting at the base and ending up at the ship's side in a snow storm. Seven miles from McMurdo, out on the bay ice, is Williams Airfield, consisting of two ice runways at right angles, sleeping and working huts for 150 men, and an impressive array of planes ranging from Globemasters and Hercules to Dakotas and Otters.

The greatest impression I have of Antarctica is the tremendous scale and beauty of the scenery. Only 30 miles from Scott Base is 13,300 ft. Erebus, an active volcano, whose plume, which can be seen hundreds of miles away, acts as a homing beacon for aircraft coming from New Zealand or returning from the South Pole Station. Fifty miles across McMurdo Sound the impressive Royal Society Range rises to over 13,000ft., and to the south is symmetrical Mt. Discovery, a 9,000ft. extinct volcano. With 24-hour daylight during the summer, there is plenty of time for sight-seeing and photography from after work right through the night. This stark, barren, beautiful continent offers endless opportunities to the keen photographer who takes care to see that his camera doesn't freeze up and his film-money doesn't run out.

Sketch of two men talking in doorway