e swung our cameras into position. For a moment it disappeared from sight, then re-appeared very close. We were both grinding away as it crashed.
“Speaking of shots, we brought back one scene that is a knockout. One of the boys was given a whip and a chair and made to enter a snow arena. He was told that he would be facing a wild animal. We started grinding the cameras. He came in warily and waited for the animal to be released at another-entrance. Suddenly a Penguin came wobbling out. The result was a scream. You should have seen our valiant expeditioner battling the ferocious beast.”
The penguins in the Antarctic are of two general types, the adelie or smaller penguins and the emperors. Some emperors grow to the size of eight-year-old children. Penguins weighing as much as 80 pounds were encountered.
Granite-sloped mountains 20,000 feet high separated Little America from the South Pole. On one trip Peterson experienced one of his most thrilling moments when the big Condor’s second motor quit at 16,000 feet while they were heading for the Edsel Ford range. Fortunately, the motor picked up again before a crash occurred.
Found Exposed Coal Deposits One party exploring more distant territory found coal deposits lying exposed on the surface. The expedition returned to the United States with conclusive proof that the Antarctic has extremely heavy coal beds beneath its deep cap of snow. Another group reported discovery of three volcanoes which were blowing smoke and fire out of snow and ice.
The bitter cold, even in the underground buildings in Little America, made handling cameras difficult. Moisture freezing in some of the instruments made it necessary to keep some of them near a heater until ready for use.
One of the curiosities of travel in the Antarctic was the frequent changes of time necessary while traveling east or west from Little America. Every fifteen minutes the men would change their watches by one hour because of the converging latitudes.
Peterson Made 21 Flights The cameras were taken on tractor expeditions to supply bases located miles from Little America for the planes on their exploration flights. These trips through blizzards and over dangerous crevasses provided the men with many thrilling adventures. On one occasion Peterson and a group had to dig a tractor out which became lodged in a 35-foot crevasse. They had to build a snow bridge under it and then dig a ramp in the hard-packed snow. The accident nearly cost the expedition one of the six motion picture cameras.
The cameras were taken along on many trips. Peterson made 21 flights with the camera. Herrmann made five. The longest dog team trip by surface was 1,220 miles. One plane flight was approximately that long.