58 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



avoided, however, by rinsing and trans- 

 ferring to the hypo bath in the dark- 

 room, when there will be no opportunity 

 for the action of light while the developer 

 is still on the plate. 



Photographers are accustomed to 

 messing in cold water, but most will 

 agree that an average temperature of 44 

 degrees Fahrenheit for washing waters 

 does not add particularly to the zest of 

 the pursuit. Melted snow, mountain 

 brook, and sea waters alternately served 

 the photographer's purposes. Nor was 

 it always possible to bring the tempera- 

 ture of the solutions to the desirable 

 mean of 60 degrees. Yet the results for 

 time of development as given in the 

 manual were uniformly good. Unless 

 one cares for dense negatives it is well 

 to remember that the time of develop- 

 ment must include the time required to 

 remove the lid of the tank and to pour 

 off the developer. A most convenient 

 method of washing is to place the strip 

 of film, or the plates in their carrier, in 

 a bucket or tank, and weight this to the 

 bottom of a pool in a clear, swift-flowing 

 stream. 



To combat the excessive moisture of 

 the region (it sometimes rains constantly 

 for a week, day and night, and if there 

 are two clear days in seven one is in 

 luck) we adopted various expedients. 

 Film packs as large as five by seven 

 inches get out of plane under these con- 

 ditions, so we carried glass plates. These 

 we kept in a specially constructed box, 

 which had a clamping, rubber-sealing 

 device to render it as nearly moisture- 

 proof as possible. As an additional pre- 

 caution a quantity of calcium chloride 

 was kept in the box with the plates. 



The films were kept in sealed tin cans. 

 After attempting, unsuccessfully, but 

 without spoiling it, to dry a strip of film 

 in the tent, a soaking in grain alcohol was 

 resorted to, and drying in a short time 

 resulted. To use the alcohol effectively 

 it is necessary to immerse the plates or 

 films for at least ten minutes, and, if the 

 gelatine shows a tendency to frill, to 

 admix about i per cent of formaldehyde. 

 A surprising thing, when first encoun- 



tered, was the short exposure required 

 when photographing in glacial regions. 

 One-hundredth of a second, with a stop 

 of f/6.3 sufficed on overcast days, and 

 on a day only slightly hazy the same 

 exposure with a stop of f/ii was ample. 

 This is accounted for by the enormous 

 amount of actinic light which the blue 

 glacier-ice, the water, the white snow of 

 the mountain peaks and the rock slopes, 

 which latter are bare of vegetation near 

 the glaciers, reflect on all sides. It is to 

 be remembered that diffused light is the 

 most actinic— that the blue of the sky is 

 in fact due to this diffused light. Making 

 a panorama from the white ice- top of the 

 Hidden glacier, the lens had to be pointed 

 directly toward the sun, and the picture 

 included snow-covered mountains and 

 the sunlit sea — surely a chance or two 

 for halation and fog. 



The necessity of securing all the record 

 pictures required by the scientists, and 

 the limited number of clear days avail- 

 able for camera work in this region, are 

 conditions which combine to restrict very 

 narrowly such aspirations as the pho- 

 tographer may have for doing pictorial 

 work. The record pictures must be taken 

 with more regard to encompassing all 

 possible detail than to the effectiveness 

 of the composition. Again, the scientific 

 notes and observations at any one site 

 generally require much less time to se- 

 cure than is necessary for the exposure 

 of the requisite number of plates. The 

 party is, therefore, ready to move on as 

 soon as the photographer has once more 

 shouldered his camera and tripod. 



To focus on the gleaming front of 

 some tidal glacier, whose ice-wall is per- 

 haps 300 feet high, and wait deliberately 

 for the chance to snap the" birth of an 

 iceberg as it is detached from the parent 

 cliff and falls with a thunderous crash 

 into the sea — that is a craving that has 

 possessed me on both trips, but was 

 never satisfied. We many times wit- 

 nessed the spectacle, but there was no 

 opportunity to photograph it from a 

 near-by site. 



Mentioning the thunderous crashes 

 which announce the birth of new ice- 



