COOL SPOT I have been told that twenty-seven nations have expressed some sort of special tie they feeling they have concerning Antarctica.
Were it located anywhere else but where it is, that could be an omen of real trouble ahead, but I don't think we have to worry about anyone setting up a group of colonies there anytime soon. Thus far, it has attracted scientific visitors interested in collecting, at frigid, first hand, the cold facts about the continent and its occupants.
In the past most nations have set up small stations and usually along the fringe of the giant expanse of land an ice formations. They were, for the most part, intended to be temporary and many were mere way stations on a route toward the main attraction - the South Pole itself. They served as weather stations, as places to leave caches of food and spare and replacement parts for machines anything to help assure them of a safer, easier return trip after their dash to the Pole such camp, a part of the USA's Richard E. Byrd expeditions, outlived them all. Byrd himself spent a rigorous winter season down there and I remember how much the ham radio operators enjoyed keeping us in touch with "Little America" as the site came to be called.
I have forgotten the name of the bay on which is located, but there is a creditable ghost town on Antarctica's shores , as well. It came to be a reality rather quickly when someone decided it was time to harvest an exceptionally large crop of whales. When that was done they abandoned the town that was constructed to do the job well and left it all to the native seal population. Over flights today show the seals have adapted to indoor living quite well. They are living in and around the selection of a dozen or so building - houses, a mess hall, some storage building, shops , warehouse barns and non-discript sheds; using them wisely to avoid direct confrontation with the wintry blasts which are common to the area. These is a long row of rusted, metal storage tanks behind the town's Main and only street fronting on the bay, and looming aggressively over and above it all is a huge the two whaling vessel rotting away on the harbor bottom.
A.L.M. April 18, 2005 [c418wds]
