Chapter 1: On The Way

It was the greatest day of Zoe’s life! She was on her way to Antarctica by ship from Hobart, Australia. Zoe couldn’t wait to see Annie. They had been good friends since they were both at school. Zoe had already been to Antarctica twice but this time, for some reason, she was even more excited than before. As a marine biologist there was plenty for her to investigate in Antarctica.

While she was unpacking, Zoe thought about how she would be spending the summer in Antarctica and then heading home before the weather turned cold.

The Aurora Australis started its main engine and slowly chugged off with Zoe and the other scientists and explorers on board. It was going to be a long cold voyage.

Aurora Australis Fact Page

Life wasn’t that bad on board the Aurora Australis. Some of the scientists suffered mild sea sickness, so it was good that the meteorologists had predicted that the voyage was going to be a smooth one. As Zoe walked down the hall to her cabin, she met a woman of about 25 and a man of the same age.

“Hi,” they said in unison.

“Hi, what are your names?” Zoe asked.

“I’m Lilly and this is John,” the woman replied. As they talked briefly, Zoe discovered that John was an ice core scientist.

Zoe continued on down the hall to her room. As she walked into her cabin, she looked down at the rolling waves. She could only just see the coast of Tasmania. It looked like a green line against the horizon.

In the next couple of days, Zoe met many of the people traveling on the ship with her. One night she had the opportunity to go to a lecture on board the boat. The lecturer started “Hm hmm. We are here tonight because we need to discuss the matter of climate change.” As he tapped the wall, the screen behind him flicked on and a graph appeared. Zoe studied the graph. It showed weather patterns for the last 90,000 years. “As you can see,” the lecturer continued, “the CO2 rose dramatically just before the last ice age, and now it is sky high again,” he said grimly. “We are lucky enough to have Dr. Alibi R. Harrington at Casey Station where she is conducting a research mission to discover more about climate change.”

When Zoe finally climbed into bed, her head was full of climate change information. She slept soundly. When Zoe awoke and went out onto the deck, one of the other explorers said, “Zoe, look down! There’s a whale.” Zoe looked down excitedly. Her red plaits were swaying in the bitter wind and, as her green eyes looked down at the water, she realized that they were wrong. It wasn’t a whale. It was a humongous elephant seal.

As the journey continued, the seas were rough and the waves were high. “So much for calm weather,” Zoe thought. The icy water splashed on her cheeks and they burned as the cold wind buffeted her face. The ice breaker swayed violently as it rode on the waves.

The days passed until eventually they were meeting small icebergs and hearing the occasional loud squawk of seabirds and seals. The Aurora Australis began cracking through the shimmering white ice as they got closer to Antarctica. Zoe could see a thin white line of what would be her home for the next three months. She was feeling the cold out on the deck of the ship and was thinking about how warm it would be in Casey Station. She knew that facilities at the station were fantastic. If they weren’t able to get close to the station, the ship helicopters would unload the scientists and their gear.

Just to the left of the Aurora Australis was an iceberg. It took a while for Zoe to register that the blob on the iceberg was an elephant seal. She was still amazed by the size of these seals. Zoe said under her breath, “That elephant seal looks like a tank.” The elephant seal swam after the boat as if it was following her.

Elephant Seals Fact Page

Chapter 2: Arrival

On the helicopter there was not much chatter because most people were staring out at the ice below. Now Zoe could see a colony of Emperor Penguins and behind them was Casey Station. Zoe watched as an elegant Emperor Penguin slowly waddled along the slippery glimering ice. Halfway along his journey, he suddenly dropped onto his belly and slid the rest of the way to the pale blue water. He splashed in and swam away. Zoe was moved by the sight of her first Emperor Penguin for this voyage and was reminded of why she chose to become a marine biologist. Zoe felt a surge of excitement. She was nearly at the end of the journey.

Finally, Zoe and the other seven explorers were out of the two crowded red helicopters. Zoe stumbled and fell out of the helicopter onto the endless icy cold plain. She shivered and set her cumbersome backpack down on a sled. She went back inside the helicopter to get more supplies. Zoe had a big bag and some food with her. When she got back, she found that her friend Annie was attaching a sled to the back of a snow mobile.

“Hi, Zoe,” Annie called. “Do you want to have a quick look around before we get going?”

“Hi, Annie. Sure, thank you!” Zoe called back through chattering teeth.

“No problemo,” Annie replied. Annie had arrived way earlier than Zoe to help set up the equipment for this year’s ice core drilling season. She was eager to get her job started. They had a successful season last year and this year’s expedition was going to be more of the same, she hoped.

Zoe put her helmet on and Annie started the snow mobile. As they drove, Annie saw a blur in the blue sky. It came closer and Annie and Zoe were able to see what it was. It was a wandering albatross. It’s wings appeared all white as it flashed across the silky blue sky. Annie and Zoe watched the bird as it landed on the shimmering, shiny ice.

“Let’s stop the snow mobile so we can get a better look,” suggested Zoe.

Annie and Zoe stopped the snow mobile to watch the bird as it landed on the hard cold ice. Annie gazed at the giant creature in amazement. Its silky feathers glistened in the light. Its webbed feet made a soft pitter patter on the ice. Zoe was excited. In all her years of marine biology in Antarctica, she had never been so close to an albatross. This was why she was in Antarctica, not to drill ice core samples.

The albatross just sat there, like it was in a fashion show. Suddenly a small gust of wind came along. The albatross fluttered off, then straightened its black and white wings and let the wind pull it away. When Annie got back to the snow mobile, the albatross was just a dot in the distance.

Annie tried to start the engine, but there was only silence. She jumped off and lifted up the cowling. “The engine is dead,” she said unhappily.

“Darn nab-it,” said Zoe. “What now? Pitch a tent?”

“No, we’ll call base on my radio.” Annie tried to report in to base team leader Dr. Alibi R. Harrington, head scientist at Casey Station. “Please send a search team,” she said hopefully.

“Has everybody passed us? I barely even noticed them,” said Zoe. “It looks like we’ll be here alone until someone comes to get us. What should we do while we are waiting?” Zoe asked her friend Annie. They were only about 137 meters (1.5 football fields) away from the ocean, so it was likely they would see a sea animal. And they did. It was an elephant seal. Zoe couldn’t believe it. It was the elephant seal that reminded her of the tank. There it was just lumbering over the ice. It was like the seal was following her.

“Look, Annie. There’s Tank,” yelled Zoe.

“What? What’s tank?” asked Annie.

“He’s one of the biggest elephant seals I’ve ever seen. I saw him on the ship as we were coming into Antarctica,” answered Zoe.

“He’s huge,” said Annie.

Annie called out to Tank, “Hey boy, come over here.”

Zoe yelled, “Annie, you are not allowed to call the Antarctic animals over to you. Did you forget?”

“Oops, must have slipped my mind,” said Annie with a touch of embarrassment in her voice. She knew that the Antarctic Treaty said that it was not okay to approach animals in Antarctica.

“Why is his name Tank?” Annie questioned Zoe.

“I thought of that name for him because he reminds me of a small army tank,” Zoe replied.

Tank was in Antarctica because he was coming to spend the summer there. He would spend it swimming, sleeping, and, of course, eating. Tank was a fat, strong elephant seal. He had a big nose and was very tough, but attractive to the female elephant seals. Tank had scars all over from fights he had experienced while guarding his harem of elephant seals on the beach back at Macquarie Island. On Macquarie Island, he was the dominant beachmaster.

Four hours later, the search team arrived. Mike quickly got to work trying to start the snow mobile. “Hmmmm. You’re right, Annie. It won’t start. Let’s take a look.” Mike opened the cowling and began to look around. “Well, this is interesting. The spark plug wire is disconnected. I wonder how that could have happened.” Mike hooked up the wires. “Annie, give it a try now,” he said.

Annie tried the snow mobile and it started right up. “Thanks, Mike!”

“That was an easy fix. Strange, though,” wondered Mike aloud.

With the snow mobile fixed, Zoe uneasily hopped on the hard, frozen seat. Her pale, white cheeks were pink with the cold. It was almost 34 degrees celsius below zero (30 degrees below zero fahrenheit). “Let’s go, Annie,” she said quickly. Zoe would be pleased to get to the station and meet up with the other people who she would be staying with.

In the past two years, Zoe had helped out with the ice core drilling research missions, although she preferred her marine biology work. She would be doing the same this year with several other scientists. Their team had been hoping their ice core samples would tell them what the climate was like 1,000,000 years ago. In her role of marine biologist, Zoe took the opportunity to study the wildlife that was living near the drilling site, and when there was none around, she would assist the ice core team with the drilling.

They would be drilling about 500 kilometers (310 miles) away from Casey Station. The thickest ice in Antarctica is found in Wilkes Land. The ice can reach up to 4,776 meters (5,223 yards) deep.

Once fixed, the snow mobile raced across the icy plains towards Casey Station. When the station came into sight, Zoe thought how out of place the red building looked on the plain of ice. It looked like a shipping crate; just a big red storage container. The station looked bleakand unwelcoming. It was bitterly cold. The Hagglund all-terrain trucks were parked outside.

Chapter 3: Drilling Season

On the morning of the drilling, Mike’s alarm clock went BRING BRING. He pulled off his covers and got out of bed. He walked over to the dressing table, got out his comb and brushed his hair and beard. Then he got dressed and walked out the door into the kitchen and saw Lilly making some food.

“Mmmph, morning,” said Mike sleepily.

“Hey,” said Lilly.

He got out the cornflakes, poured some milk into a bowl and stuffed his face.

“Yuck, Mike,” said Lilly, obviously disgusted.

Mike ran out of the station, hurried up to the Hagglund and tried to start the engine. Brrum, brumm it complained. He jogged to the next one and started its engine. Drrum, brumm; it started. Then he walked over to the helicopter and hopped in. Mike started the engine and woosh, woosh, the blades started to turn.

“Hi, Mike. Early morning, ehh?” said Max.

“Yo, dude. You named it,” shouted Mike above the noise of the blades.

Mike and Max started to pack some of the equipment, like the ice core drill parts, the apple dome and tents. Lilly walked over to Mike and told them that the food was ready to take out to the Hagglund and the chopper.

“Sure thing, darl,” said Max.

“Max!” said Lilly in an exasperated voice.

For the next hour and a half Mike, Lilly and Max packed the Hagglund full of equipment. Mike looked at his watch.

“7 a.m.,” he stated.

“Good,” said Lilly and Max together.

One by one the other scientists filed out and started to help. By 11 a.m., Mike and the others had finished packing. “Yes!” said Mike and Max. They gave each other a high five.

“Come on guys, all of you into the Hagglund,” said Dr Alibi. All of the team including Zoe, Max, Jack, Cally, John, and Lilly climbed into the vehicles.

Mike, Dr. Alibi, Annie, and the pilot all jumped up into the helicopter. The pilot turned the engine on again and the blades started to spin. Whoosh, whoosh, woosh went the helicopter.

As the helicopter lifted off, Dr. Alibi clutched Mike’s arm. “I’m afraid of heights,” she explained.

The single rotor helicopter flew smoothly over the ice below. As they looked out of the helicopter, they gasped at the beauty. The helicopter flew ahead of the Hagglunds with the pilot and Dr. Alibi scanning the ground for crevasses. They recorded where they were, to pass onto the team that was traveling on the ground.

On the trip, Jack was the field guide. He would fly back in one of the helicopters later that day.

As they drove to the drilling site, the scientists all looked out at the amazing white landscape. Cally was sitting quietly when she noticed a column of ice rising out of the whiteness. The shimmering ice sculpture

shone miraculously, like the shape of a woman. It was just sitting there on the bleak ice. The ice sculpture looked as though her hair was cascading down her back. Her dress was splayed out over her slim body. Her body was shaped with such precise accuracy that she looked almost real. Her face was shaped in the ice with a shining smile. The ice glittered. She had an icy cold stare and the light shone as though a teardrop was falling from her eye. Cally was amazed by the sight and found that she couldn’t pull her eyes away from it.

As soon as they arrived at the drilling site, the scientists began to put up the tents. Because of the cold, it was difficult to push the pegs into the freezing ice. Max tried to put up one of the main tents in the bitter cold and the gale force winds. He felt like he was getting frostbite. He dropped one of the icy white pegs and was frightened he might slip on the ice. The wind buffeted him like he was in a small hurricane. Max put his cold hand on the side of the tent and spluttered as his

woollen gloves split. He got one of the tent poles and stuck it in the ground. After he had managed to do this with three of the other poles, he put the creamy canvas on top of the metal poles. A cry of surprise ripped from Max’s lips as he slipped. He needed John to help him up and hammer in the last frozen peg. “Can you help me put the last tent peg in?” Max asked John with a slight quiver in his voice.

Dressing in Antarctica Fact Page

Chapter 4: Bad Luck

The next morning, they all awoke early. The team was anxious to get right to work. Annie and John were talking about where they should take the ice core sample. They suggested south of the tents. The rest of the team agreed. Mike and Max put the parts of the ice core drill onto their shoulders and lugged it over to the snow mobile. They walked slowly and surely so as not to drop the expensive equipment. Although Mike would be driving the equipment there, the rest of the team would walk across because it was only 150 meters away. When they got there, everybody helped put the drill together. As soon as they had the drill set up, they started working.

“It is getting cold,” said Dr. Alibi “and my lips are getting dry. Does anybody have some lip gloss?”

“I do,” said Zoe.

“Mango, my favorite,” said Dr. Alibi.

“Is it? It is mine too,” responded Zoe.

Antarctica Weather Fact Page

It was 10 degrees below zero Celsius as the scientists were drilling. The team had gotten chilled to the bone and so they had to stop. Max helped Mike shut the drill down. Then they joined the others inside.

The next day they started working again. The drill was working smoothly and everyone was warmer and cheerier than yesterday.

For three days the teams kept drilling without any problems and with nothing out of the ordinary happening. On the fourth day, as Team A was on their third to last drill rotation, the drill started making horrible noises that made John, Cally, and Dr. Alibi flinch. They replaced the drill part and resumed drilling in a nearby area. After two minutes of drilling, the terrible noise started again. This time the team pulled up the drill before it broke. When they pulled out the core, there was something odd in it. Because they were only 10 centimeters down, they decided to discard it.

They kept on drilling and pulled up another sample. In the ice core, they found some bugs and plants. They found something else too!

“Could it possibly be a bone or something?” asked John.

“Wow, that’s unusual!” exclaimed Cally.

“It is a bone,” stated John. “Hey guys, a bone, a bone!” The team gathered around to examine the find.

“Oh, wow,” said Cally as John snapped some photos.

Suddenly, Cally heard a noise. She lifted her head and saw Zoe on a snow mobile coming their way. Zoe was returning from studying some marine wildlife. “People, people! A storm is on the way! There’s wind and snow!” yelled Zoe. “It is a darn huge blizzard.” Cally looked around at the wide expanse of white ice.

Zoe sometimes over exaggerated, this Cally knew. “Oh, come on. It can’t be that bad,” Cally said as she calmly put her hand on Zoe’s shoulder.

“No, seriously. It is huge,” Zoe insisted sternly.

“Zoe, calm down,” said Cally in an exasperated voice. A strong wind buffeted the walls of the tent.

“Cally, why won’t you believe me?” Zoe sobbed dramatically.

A couple of the other scientists burst in the door gasping for breath. “Wind speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour are coming our way fast,” Mike gasped.

“Ha, I told you so!” Zoe exclaimed in a triumphant voice.

“Shhshhpitshh, storm on shhhhh way. Shhhshhpitshh, huge wind shhhshhpitshh,” came the rough message over the radio.

Bang, smash, crash. The storm bombarded the tent with its full power of cruelty.

Cally yelled, Dr. Alibi gasped, and Mike screamed like a girl.

“You were right, Zoe,” Cally said in a soft and embarrassed squeaky little voice.

Zoe was right. It WAS huge. Cally needed to warn the others. And quickly, before it reached the other tents. But it looked as though they already knew. They were taking cover in their tents.

“What a terrible thing to happen now! I never saw it coming,” said Cally to Mike.

“Without Zoe, I would have been on my way to the lab and I’d never have gotten back!” said Cally. “I’m sorry for not believing you Zoe.”

They decided they needed to pack up the Hagglunds and snow mobiles and head back to Casey Station. They needed the equipment at the station to help with identification of their find.

Chapter 5: A New Discovery

Back at Casey Station, the group of scientists from the drilling team gathered in the science lab. While examining the bone in the ice core, the scientists discovered a layer of ash enclosing the bone.

Mt. Erebus Fact Page

“The ash must have come from an eruption about 1,000,000 years ago from Mt. Erebus,” Cally stated.

“Possibly,” said Dr. Alibi, “however, there are many volcanoes here, including one on Heard Island.”

John called Zoe over to have a look at the bone. “It’s certainly not a seal of any kind,” she said in a confused voice.

“Whale?”

“No.”

“Well, is it a human bone?” asked Dr. Alibi anxiously.

Zoe rolled her eyes in amusement.

“It could be a dinosaur bone,” she wondered out loud.

“Are you sure?” John asked.

“Pretty much.”

Dr. Alibi decided to call a team of paleontologists to Antarctica, including an expert called Desina. She thought it would be too much for Zoe to handle. Desina was head of an American paleontologist team who specialized in recognizing dinosaur bones. She could recognize any type of dinosaur bone just at a quick glance. Because the ice core scientists could tell that the bone was important, Desina and her team would be rushed in to help the ice core scientists identify the bone.

One day the team found Zoe in the lab looking at the bone. She was gazing at it with a look of longing on her face. Zoe seemed just as excited as the others that they had found a bone, but she also seemed a little unsettled by something.

“Zoe, come over here,” said John.

“What do you want John?” Zoe asked in a quivering voice.

“I was just looking at this bone, and wondered if you would be interested in having a look,” John said.

“Alright,” Zoe responded, “but I can only look for a short time because I have some important work that needs completing. I haven’t time to be examining a silly little bone,” she continued. “I have to figure out how to st… I mean, how to finish off some paper work,” she said with a slight hint of guilt in her voice.

Zoe looked at the bone through the microscope. It was shaped like a circle. She had enough and walked past the table, tripping over something. She got up and brushed herself off. Suddenly, the computer shut down.

“I don’t understand,” said John.

Once Desina arrived she got right to work. The first day, as Desina and her team were examining the bone in the lab, Zoe walked in and started inspecting it as well.

Desina snatched the bone away.

“This is my job. Too much for a young marine biologist. Tell the others it’s a dinosaur bone!”

After two days, Desina still had no match for what type of dinosaur it might be. Would they have to come up with a name for a new species?

Chapter 6: Missing

Desina looked up. She had the feeling she was being watched. She heard the crunching of snow behind her. She spun around and asked in a quivering voice, “Who’s there… is anyone there?”

“Don’t worry, just me,” said John from a building near the science lab.

“John, don’t do that again. You scared the living daylights out of me,” said Desina with a relieved voice. She heard something rattle inside the science lab, but knew that no-one else knew the security code apart from Dr. Alibi and herself. Alibi had gone to bed two hours ago with a throbbing headache. Who could be in the lab? Desina crept off with her awareness heightened. She went inside to get warm. It felt good to be back indoors.

Meanwhile, outside, a dark figure crept out of the shadows and walked up to the lab’s security pad and punched in the code: 7116. The door swung open.

Inside the station, Desina went to see Dr. Alibi, but she was not there. She heard music blaring in Zoe’s room. She headed for Zoe’s room. Just then, Max came stumbling down the hallway, “I advise you to not go in there. Blaring music usually means that someone is in a bad mood,” Desina decided to heed Max’s warning.

The next day, Desina and Dr. Alibi walked into the science lab to find the place in chaos. Drawers all out, papers all over the floor, along with the test tubes shattered. Dr. Alibi screamed. Desina rushed around making sure nothing of importance had been smashed.

Max and Mike were outside on the lovely warm day when suddenly they heard a scream. It was Dr. Alibi. They rushed to the lab. It was a disaster!! The two men bolted across the room and started to help Desina clean the place up while Dr. Alibi just muttered under her breath.

After twenty minutes of searching, all of a sudden Desina looked up at Dr. Alibi and froze with what looked to her like HORROR!

“The bone is gone,” Desina cried out.

Mike ran out of the lab and brought John, Cally, Lilly, Zoe, Annie, and Jack. When they got there, Dr. Alibi explained the entire situation to them. While listening to Dr. Alibi, Lilly spotted something no one had spotted, lip gloss. Mango flavor.

“John, look over here,” said Lilly.

“It must be Zoe’s,” replied John.

“Zoe, you must have ta… wait a minute. It’s got your name on it, Dr. Alibi,” said Lilly in a shocked voice.

Jack came and took the lip gloss and said calmly, “She’s right, you know,” and showed it to Dr. Alibi.

Outside, Mike, Max and Zoe were examining some surviving fresh boot prints. Zoe could tell that the foot prints were from the previous night. Desina and the others came outdoors.

“We found this,” said Lilly and held up the lip gloss. “It has Dr. Alibi’s name on it.” The team looked on horrified.

“It’s not mine!” gasped Dr. Alibi. She grabbed the lip gloss. “It can’t be mine, I don’t use that brand,” she ranted.

“You look guilty,” Mike said in a sing song voice.

“Dr. Alibi, place your boots in these boot prints.” Dr. Alibi did. Her boots fit perfectly. “Where were you last night?” asked Desina. “I went to talk to you, but you were not in your room”.

“I had a splitting head ache, and went to bed,” said Dr. Alibi in an angry voice. “What reason would I have to steal the BONE?!”

“You are right. What reason would you have to steal the bone?” answered Mike.

Suddenly, Dr. Alibi noticed that Zoe was gone. “Where is Zoe?” she asked.

“Maybe she didn’t want to help us clean up,” said Mike in an annoyed voice.

“Maybe Zoe stole the bone and she’s hiding,” said Desina suspiciously.

“Wait. Where were you Dr. Alibi?” inquired John. “It seems strange that we found a lip gloss the same flavor that you use.”

“I said I had a splitting headache!” yelled Dr. Alibi. “And, I have no reason to take the bone.”

“Does anyone have a reason to steal the bone?” commented Mike.

“We need to have a meeting. With everybody,” said Max. “Let’s meet in the mess hall.”

Everybody was called to the mess hall. Zoe, Dr. Alibi, Desina, Cally, John, Max, Mike, and others gathered in the large hall.

“Okay, let’s go over the break in. Last night someone stole the very rare fossil that was discovered in the ice core,” Alibi stated as she led the investigation. “Here are the facts: the lab was entered using the code, the lab was wrecked, and the bone is missing. I want to know where everybody was last night. You first, Max,” said Dr. Alibi.

“Mike and I were fixing two of the snow mobiles until we went to bed at 10:00,” said Max.

“Okay, that covers both of you,” said Dr. Alibi. “You’re next, Desina. Where were you?”

“I was working in the lab until 8:00. Then I went to bed. John saw me leaving the lab,” answered Desina confidently.

“John, where were you last night?” asked Dr. Alibi.

“I was cleaning the Hagglund because it looked as though it hadn’t been cleaned for years,” John responded. “Go check it out and you’ll see how clean it is now.”

“What about you Cally, or you three?” she demanded pointing at a small group standing in the corner of the lab.

“We were playing Risk in the mess hall til midnight,” answered Cally. “Then we went straight to our rooms to sleep. Why would we steal the bone anyway?”

“Why would anybody steal the bone?” yelled Alibi in frustration.

“Everyone has a convincing alibi except you Dr. Alibi,” John pointed out quickly.

“Yes,” Jack joined in. “He’s right, you know. Nobody saw Dr. Alibi when she supposedly had a headache.”

Max interjected, “Dr. Alibi doesn’t need one. It’s on her identity badge.”

“It sure is,” said Mike. “Her name says it all, and it’s spelled with a capital A.”

“Yes, hmm,” said Dr. Alibi. “Just wait. We haven’t heard anything from you, Zoe. What were you doing last night?”

“I went to the mess hall to get some apples to snack on and then I went to my room to read. I read until I fell asleep around 10:00,” answered Zoe in a kind of shaky voice.

“We didn’t see you in the mess hall,” said Lilly and Cally in unison.

Lilly broke in, and said in an annoyed voice, “Zoe’s isn’t a very good alibi. You weren’t in the mess hall when you said you were.”

The team was ripping each other apart with their accusations. For the next hour and a half, the team made pointless and ridiculous comments and accusations at each other.

In the middle of the questioning, Max realized that they had left the vital lip gloss evidence in the now locked science lab. “Hey Zoe, can you go get the lip gloss from the science lab? It is important to our investigation.”

“Yes, sure,” replied Zoe.

Zoe ran down to the science lab. When she got back, she gave the lip gloss to Max.

Max thanked her and then, slowly and surely, a thought dawned upon him. “How did you get in? I didn’t think that you knew the code,” Max said.

“Umm, Desina opened it for me,” Zoe replied in a hopeful voice.

“No, she didn’t,” Dr. Alibi said in a convincing voice. “She was here all along.”

The evidence was twisting towards Zoe. She started to look depressed, her end of the scale was going d…o…w…n… Zoe slowly shrunk back.

Finally, the tension of the situation got to Zoe, and she started sobbing, “Okay, I did it.”

“Why, did you do it? Why Zoe, why?” Cally asked softly.

“Because I felt left out, and you guys were ignoring me,” she sobbed. “Your ice core team not only got some great results about climate change, but you also found what may be a new dinosaur. I’m sorry. Will you please forgive me,” Zoe begged.

“Sorry! Sorry doesn’t cut it,” shouted Dr. Alibi. “You took our research, said nothing to us, and you almost broke the bone.”

“Zoe, tell us how you did it,” said John.

“Well, I wore Dr. Alibi’s boots to make it look like it was her,” said Zoe.

“Now wait just a second. I just remembered! Dr. Alibi and I are the only ones who know the security code. How would anyone else know the code if Dr. Alibi or I did not tell them?” interrupted Desina.

“You know how telephone buttons have different noises,” said Zoe. “I listened to the sounds of the different numbers on the code,” she explained. “Each number has its own sound and my hearing is very good, that is how I got in. I memorized them,” confessed Zoe.

“And the broken down snow mobile?  The lip gloss?” asked Mike.

“I said I’m sorry.  Yes, I pulled off the spark plug wires.  I wanted to conduct marine biology.  I was jealous of all of the progress your expedition was making and I had the opportunity to see an albatross, up close.  I feel terrible.  Please forgive me,” sobbed Zoe.

Chapter 7: Velocielmidon

After extensive work, the paleontology team had managed to rebuild the dinosaur skeleton. Through excavating the entire ice core area, the scientists had found many of the bones they needed to rebuild the dinosaur. Dr. Alibi’s team had continued to work and had obtained some great ice cores. Strangely enough, the bones that they found in the excavation area were completely covered by a layer of ash. The scientists concluded that the dinosaur had been buried deep in the earth when Mt. Erebus had erupted thousands of years ago. It was interesting to think that based on the bone that they found in the ice core, the paleontologists had begun to draw a picture of what the dinosaur 1,000,000 years ago might have looked like.

Seven years later, at the University of California Museum of Paleontology, the entire ice core team was assembled in front of the now complete skeletal structure of the Velocielmidon. Unfortunately, Annie couldn’t be there. She was on another research mission in Antarctica. This time she was with an American ice core team.

The team gazed up at the dinosaur that they had discovered.

They gave a big cheer and a passer by commented, “I am happy about your find because I was getting sick of the Muttabarasuarus that you had on display here. I’m finding this discovery fascinating.”

“It’s different than any other skeleton that I’ve seen,” said John proudly.

Its rear limbs appeared large and powerful and it had spikes and plates down its spine. On the dinosaur there were about 20 plates, all the way down its back, with spikes at regular intervals. The dinosaur had small dog teeth which were rounded like pearls, except the top of the teeth, which were flat like a pancake. The dinosaur stood on two feet, although it could run on its hind legs or all four legs. The front arms were much smaller than the back legs. The front paws had sharp, flat claws. But on the hind feet there were non-sharp claws with a spur at the back, like the foot of a chicken. The palaeontologists determined that the dinosaur was a nocturnal omnivore eating both meat and plants. Because of the structure of the dinosaur’s legs, Desina and her team were able to guess that the dinosaur was a fast runner.

“It’s amazing,” murmured Lilly.

“I wish Zoe were here to see this,” said Dr. Alibi.

“You shouldn’t,” replied Desina. “If you remember, she stole the bone.”

The paleontologists named the dinosaur Velocielmidon, meaning speedy, foot, tooth.

Antarctica Fact Page

Glossary:

Australia United States

petrol gas

favourite favorite

plaits braids

snow mobile snow machine

kilometre kilometer

1 kilometer 0.621 miles

1 meter 1.09 yards

0 degrees celsius 32 degrees farenheit

]]> http://iem.tmag.tas.gov.au/?feed=rss2&p=33 http://iem.tmag.tas.gov.au/?p=287 http://iem.tmag.tas.gov.au/?p=287#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:23:16 +0000 abaird http://iem.tmag.tas.gov.au/?p=287

In the early spring in the Inupiat village of Nuiqsit, Alaska, 10 children set off on 5 Snow Machines Down the Colville River headed for the Beufort Sea.  The riders, boys and girls, were dressed in dark parkas, long fur mittens, seal skin pants and mukluks.

Eric and Mary-Lee shared the lead machine. Eric drove on this mission because he won the coin toss. Mary-Lee rode on the back and held on with all her might. Eric’s hair, unlike that of his cousins, was a light blond and it hung out of his helmet in the front and back

The air temperature was a comfortable 0 degrees F but a steady 20-knot wind blew from the west driving the wind chill down to 25 below even before they started. With their 45 mph pace the riders were experiencing temperatures in the 60 below range. They were dressed for it so they were quite comfortable. These children knew what they were doing.

Over the last few weeks the villagers had noticed that their nights were no longer silent. The roar of cargo aircraft could be heard heading north at a surprising low altitude above the village. The planes flew without lights and did not respond to the radio calls from the tower at the small village airport. At a village meeting it was decided that someone needed to investigate. The Nuiqsut Snow Machine Search and Rescue Squad immediately volunteered.

Using a powerful spotting scope the lead rider noticed fresh snow machine tracks on the trail where the river ice met the sea. The tracks converged around a dark stain on the ice near some open water. The riders accelerated to 60 and came together around what looked like a seal breathing hole. The snow was stained with blood and a half eaten bearded seal carcass lay near the small opening in the ice. The snow around the hole in the ice told an interesting story. Human foot prints were mixed with bear paws and the tracks of something large and heavy being towed behind a Snow Cat lead off to the north.

The riders remounted and headed out following the tracks. The b1ood had made them cautious. They knew that any one equipped to subdue a 680kg carnivore could be deadly.

The tracks pointed to a smudge of black smoke on the northeastern horizon. The smoke boiled from what looked like cluster of pressure ridges, plates of sea ice forced into a vertical position by the wind. The plates stood at least twenty feet high and formed a natural fence enclosing an area 1500 hundred meters across.
The riders circled the natural enclosure and could see through a low spot in the wall that the area was deserted except for a large metal freight container and a pile of burning tires. The smoldering tires had clearly been used as a beacon to guide planes to a temporary runway at the middle of the clearing. The cargo container was partly crushed and it’s doors were banging open and shut in the steady Arctic wind. Markings painted on the door identified it as belonging to Antarctic Petroleum Exploration Systems.
Antarctica!!, Twelve thousand miles away at the other end of the earth. Twenty years before communication between the poles could take weeks but since each member of the Search And Rescue Squad was equipped with a laptop computer and knew how to use Skype it was a simple matter to notify their counter parts in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

At the other end of the planet, on the far south island of Tasmania, members of the Rescue Squad, Elyse and Lauren were sitting by the fountain at Salamanca markets.

“I’m bored” said Lauren throwing a 20c piece into the fountain “really bored!”

“Yea aghh” squeaked Elyse, jumping up in her seat. More members of the squad, Jarrod, Liam and Thomas were now standing behind her. They had just pinched her lightly on the shoulder.

“Do you want to play?” said Liam holding up a soccer ball.

“No!, go away, shoo!” exclaimed Lauren. But Elyse had a different idea. She seized the ball and started playing. Immediately the boys followed. Lauren didn’t particularly like this idea but she watched attentively and occasionally barracked for Elyse. Within a few minutes the game was completely out of hand, Jarrod had the ball and forgot to look up and rammed into a barrel of fruit knocking it over. Elyse took over the ball and weaved her way through the stalls. Suddenly bang! Elyse ran straight into a clothes rack. By the time that Elyse had untangled herself and hung all the fallen clothes back up on the rack, Liam had stolen the ball. Elyse raced off after Liam. Liam passed the ball to Thomas. He dribbled it across the grass. Suddenly, with out warning, Thomas kicked the ball high into the air. For a few seconds the ball was completely out of sight. It was now visible through the leaves in the tree above. Their shocked faces watched in surprise as the ball headed for the water.

“Look it’s going to land in the water” said Elyse as the others all groaned. The only thing that came out of Laurens mouth was a solid

“YES, that ball will be sunk for good.” Though normally the others would have reacted to this, they were silent. Their faces didn’t change an inch as a strong gust of wind picked up and the ball’s path was altered. THUD the ball was now on the deck of the Aurora Australis, the boat that supplied the Australian bases in Antarctica!

“You’re so stupid” cried Elyse “now who’s going to get it?”

“I’ll go if you go” said Liam cautiously, gesturing to Thomas. “Yeahhh, okay” he replied hesitantly so off they went towards the boat.

“I better go with them because I bet you they will get in trouble with out me,” sighed Jarrod

Ten minutes past but still the ball remained on the deck

“Gosh they’re taking their time” grumbled Lauren.

“What have they done now?” said Elyse “lets go, come on”. “What, it’s only a soccer ball” groaned Lauren annoyed but she still followed Elyse up the ramp and onto the Aurora Australis. “Wweeeeee” the boat moved forward and Elyse and Lauren tumbled into an open room.

“GET…OFF…NOW!!! You’re sitting on my HEAD” screamed Elyse.

“Sorry” said Lauren coldly.

“Hey you guys” said three familiar voices. They were Liam, Thomas and Jarrod.

There they were standing around in a very cosy looking cabin. Suddenly they heard voices ten metres or so away. They dived under a bunk bed. When the voices died away the girls crept out of their hiding places quietly, whereas the boys were not so careful and jumped out. Liam almost hit his head on a table with a laptop on it. “Ssssshhhh” hissed Lauren and Elyse at the same time. “BEEP”…..a screen appeared on the laptop.

“Hey what’s that?” exclaimed Jarrod “I think it’s Skype” said Thomas.

“Let’s see whose calling” said Elyse. They answered the call, “Hi Joel, are you there?” said a voice on the computer.

“Um….ah what do I write?” hissed Elyse at the boys.

“Pretend to be Joel, who ever he is” said Jarrod “but turn the webcam off and type so they don’t realise it’s not Joel.”

“Ok” breathed Elyse. “I’m here” she typed.

“Good, we’ve got some urgent news. Many polar bears are going missing. We haven’t seen a bear up here in days” said the voice from the computer, “and we’ve found mysterious signs of bears being killed, we think, and being flown out of here. A container had ‘Antarctic Petroleum Exploration Systems’ written on it. See what you can find out!”

“What on earth are they talking about?” muttered Liam.

“We have to get out of here” whispered Lauren.

“Ahh I don’t think we can do that” breathed Liam, “incase you haven’t noticed, the boat left port five minutes ago”

“Oh” sighed Lauren.

“I wonder how long it will take to get there?” questioned Elyse. “Get where?” said Thomas.

“We’re on the Aurora Australis, remember, we’re going to Antarctica!” exclaimed Elyse.

“Are you there? “The words popped up on the computer screen. Before they could answer, the door handle turned and the door opened. At the door was a tall, slim girl. Her short hair was as dark as her eyes. “Luke, come here now!” she shouted. A boy who was taller but with eyes the same dark colour appeared. “Chloe, has Joel told you about any other students on the boat?” the boy questioned the girl.

“No but they’re in our cabin! I’ll go get Joel” and with that she ran down the hall away from the door. Luke started to question them,

“What are you doing? Why are you here? Who are you?”

“Wait, wait” began the children “We don’t know what we’re doing here, we didn’t mean to come here.”

“But you are still here on the boat committing a crime by trespassing.”

“But-“they were cut off as the door opened yet again. It was a man who looked like he was in his late twenties.

“These are the kids you were talking about aren’t they?” said the man.

“Yep, that’s them” said the girl.

“Hey” Liam let out a loud yell, “I know you, yeah, you’re Joel aren’t you?” asked Jarrod, “the PhD student who came to our class. You’re studying ice cores aren’t you?”

“Yes I am Joel, but what are you doing here?”

“Our… our… our soccer ball, their soccer ball.” stuttered Lauren, “which got foolishly kicked onto the Aurora Australis and I had to come look for it as well!

“Ok, ok, slow down guys, you can’t go back now, it’s too late to get you off the boat”.

Lauren began to sob quietly “I want to go home.”

“Me too” said Elyse. Joel ignored her crying and made his way to the laptop. “Some one’s called, did you see?” “uh…ah…um …yeah, they said that polar bears are going missing. ”that’s strange” exclaimed Joel.

One week later

The past week had been thoroughly exciting. They had pretended to be studying ice cores with Joel, Chloe and Luke and got away with being on the boat. They were arriving at Casey station today. Jarrod had awoken to the sound of sea ice scaping along the side of the ships hull.

“Ok every body” said Joel at the group briefing, “later today we will be flying out to the ice core camp. Tess, the kids and I will fly out with some of the equipment. When we left the site last year we buried all of the big equipment to save flying it out and back in again, so guess what kids?

“But,” began Thomas.

“No buts, we have to dig it all out if you want somewhere to sleep and equipment to cook on!”.

Yes folks, the Ice e-mystery project is being presented twice at the International Polar Year Science Conference in Oslo in June 2010. Sheryl Sotelo from McNeil Conyon School in Alaska and Anne Briggs from Margate Primary School in Tasmania are presenting one session and Andy Baird from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is presenting another. Two perspectives: one from the classroom and one from the project coordination side. The conference has a sister function; a Polar Teachers conference preceding it, so the whole event should be a great chance to talk to educators and scientists about polar communicationa and education in general. Keep you posted!

Happy Christmas and New year 2009!

The stories have unfolded and some will now be turned into e-books. Lots of the polar learning has been ‘behind the scenes’ - away from this website. Teachers have sent in lots of images about their class projects to the project coordinator, done performances around the Ice e-mystery project in school assemblies and generally we have only  the tip of the iceberg (couldn’t resist) of all that’s been achieved represented here on the website. A little sample of some of the classroom and museum work follows.  Stay tuned to this site for the final products early in the new year.

10th December 2008

The latest is an Ice e-mystery teacher’s reflections:

“I must admit to being amazed at the effect of this project on the children’s writing.  We are seeing perseverance, sustained enthusiasm and profound skill improvement in many of the students.  Not all of their work is making it to the website but even the younger children are making huge improvements.” Imogen Hunt, Peregrine School Principal, Tasmania.

STOP PRESS 8th December 2009

Museum of the Air? The Tasmanian Musem and Art Gallery flew to Cape Barren Island in the Bass Strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania on the weekend. Staff took specimen and conducted activities for the Ice e-mystery students from Cape Barren Primary school. Who said Penguins couldn’t fly! (You will have to read the Group 1 story to understand that reference!)

TMAG staff Emma Abbott and Kate Morris with a flying King Penguin

TMAG Educator Emma Abbott with students from Cape Barren Primary School

September 2008

Well the site is up - be interesting to find out how easy everyone finds entering text and images. Be honest in your comments and we may be able to keep things improving. Also if there are other images/ text for your schools then send it on. cheers Andy B.

So a few comments coming in via email, if you think they are of interest to everyone please  enter them here. One thing to note: A Tassie school did such a good job with the frame up using the model egg, with the students convinced it was a real egg and getting totally into the research of Apsley Cherry-Garrard  that eventually I had to write a letter to the students explaining how it was a model egg (I didn’t use the word ‘fake’ !)to get the teachers off the hook! Hope everyone has that probelm!

We are writing to complain about the polar bears being moved to Antarctica. These are our reasons:

□ They will eat all the penguins because they are meat eaters. They are the smartest hunters in the world and they are the biggest meat eaters in the world.

□ The polar bears will not like the six month cold period. They will not like the icy cold winds blowing on them.

□ It will be too heavy. We could only fit 4 or 5 polar bears in the jet truck and it will have to be better made.

□ In Antarctica it can get as cold as -129F. It will be way to cold for the polar bears.

□ Polar bear’s will die from eating penguin’s because they have never eaten them before.

□ This includes all the seal’s and fish because they will be very sick from the
seals and when the polar bears are moved after to the Antarctic when they start to run around in the Antarctic they will spread a disease.

Please stop this project immediately.

From,
Anonymous.

Mystery Under the Antarctic Ice

OR SALE

Ex-Military Submarine

Any offers over $2,000,000 considered

(04)54728349

Chapter 2

At the AAA HQ agents Bob and Tim were responding to Junior’s message.

From: Supersecretspy@gmail.com

To: AAA@gmail.com

Subject: Evil illegal plan

Frost Bite plans to mine all the oil and minerals out of Antarctica. We are on an ex-military submarine heading to the Ross Ice Shelf. Please be careful when writing back. My roommate could look at read my e-mail, but I am not worried about the bodyguard Joe. He won’t be a problem. Will await further instruction.

From: AAA@gmail.com

To: Supersercretspy@gmail.com

Re: evil illegal plan

We don’t have enough evidence to bag Frost Bite. Please plant your tracking devices at the HQ, where they are digging etc. When you get to the Antarctic HQ, please contact us again. Also take pictures, get prints and study what they are doing and send them to us as soon as possible. Be careful, Frost Bite is a dangerous man.

Bob and Tim sent the message. Bob said, “ I think Junior is going to be in trouble. Frost Bite can be menacing.”

“Yes, I agree,” Tim replied. “I hope he survives long enough to let us know the location of the Antarctic HQ.”

Chapter 3

The submarine bumped around as Dr. Frost Bite drilled the ice. He maniacally looked from his GPS to the controls of the sub’s drill and back again. The submarines edges scraped along the ice of the tunnel. It wasn’t so hard to drill because the whole area had been drilled the previously by Frost Bite’s men, but had re-frozen in the months since then. Frost Bite’s men had been working for just under two years setting up the site and now it was almost ready.

It was deep within the ice. Some of the ice on the Ross Shelf was almost 1 kilometre thick so there was plenty of room to build. This secret lab was under ice that had been stable for some time, and Frost Bites ice experts had basically guaranteed it would remain safe for as long as they needed it. It wasn’t far from a crevasse – a great fissure in the ice – and that would be used to gain access to the surface when they needed it.

The Submarine’s drill point nose stopped it’s whirring noise as it broke through the last layer of ice and popped into what looked like a small lake – though it was hard to tell too much through a periscope. Dr. Frost chortled to himself. Hee hee hee hee ha ha ha ha. It was all as he had planned.

After being submerged for the best part of 3 weeks the sub pulled into a dock carved out of pure ice. Next to it was another submarine. It had frost covering it from front to back and didn’t look like it was in the best condition. “Brr its cold I thought we was going on holidays” Joe said (AIRHEAD), as they unloaded the boxes and boxes of Dr. Frost’s stuff and then put them in the small shack where Dr. Frosts lab had been set up.

There were yurt style buildings set up in a perimeter around the lake. Each had signs designating their use, but the crew of the sub were looking forward to some quiet time after the noise of the drilling, and would leave the exploring until later.

Junior sent a quick email to the A.A.A via his satellite phone, he had only one bar of signal, and that was with all the technological stuff Dr Frost had already put into place. Apparently it would get better later as there was a snow storm above. Some days, or weeks even, there would be no signals out.

From: Supersecretspy@gmail.com

To: AAA@gmail.com

Subject: setting up

Dr. Frosts lab now at Ross Ice shelf. I will email you as soon as I get any more evidence against Dr. Frostbite. Have taken photos of initial surroundings but we are busy unpacking so I will be missed if I do anything else now. I don’t know how you’ll find this place form above. Phone signal is weak.

Junior hit the send button on his phone. The rest of the crew had finished unpacking the boxes from the sub. It would take about a week to set it all up inside the structures, and then Dr. Frost’s plan would swing into overload.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

At the AAA, Bob and Tim grinned with excitement. They loved the idea of their first major capture. Even if it was something the world would probably never know about.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Billy and Shirley had been talking as Junior approached them. They were laughing at Joe. “Look at him”, said Billy “he’s like a G.I. Joe doll I had when I was 6”.

“And he’s wearing a suit like he’s on a jungle mission - is that a singlet?” replied Shirley

“I heard him telling you that he was named after G.I. Joe” said Junior, “and that’s why he wanted to join the army. That’s where he got his training initially.”

“I think he was flirting with Shirley. But she only wants to see the Adelie Penguins that breed here” added Junior.

“It must be hard being the only girl on our mission”, said Billy to Shirley. Junior laughed at Tim and said he must have a crush too.

The three of them passed the last of the crew who had built the under water lair as they packed away their things. The build crew would leave as soon as they packed the second sub that waited by the dock. Junior offered to help one of the men with a heavy box. Billy and Shirley went in search of coffee – one of the few vices that health freak Dr. Frost would allow.

As he left the sub and it’s crew Junior clipped a homing device to the sub. It would send a signal to the AAA and help them track the base, and question the men aboard.

He watched as the submarine sank beneath the icy water and went to find Shirley, Billy and their coffee. A tiny red dot bleeped on his phone’s GPS and he hoped that it was also showing at the AAA.

Later that night: Doctor Frost sat in his lab like an organist at the biggest pipe organ in the world. He pressed buttons and flicked through statistics and graphs on many screens around him. He then flipped open a plastic cover and pressed the red button that lay beneath him.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

At the AAA Tim and Bob had been monitoring the progress of the submarine on the GPS. They had organized an Australian Naval boat to intercept the sub at first light. They would soon have answers to some of their questions. Bob was almost ready to celebrate when the small red dot they’d been watching for the last 12 hours suddenly blinked out.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Chapter 4

Everyone at the AAA was frantically pressing buttons trying to regain the signal. “It’s not working! The signal has been blocked!” Tim yelled.

“I know,” replied Bob, “ thank goodness we have locked onto their location. We can send word to McMurdo to send out a helicopter to those coordinates. Maybe there will be something odd going on in that area.”

“Yeah. Good idea. Let’s e-mail Junior. He can give us the sub’s final location.” Tim said.

“I can’t get an e-mail signal either!” Bob replied. “Dr. Frost must be behind this.”

******************************************************************

Earlier that evening, Dr. Frost sat at his small desk going over the last details of the shipment that would head out in the morning. Looking up he saw something that caught his eye. The door to Junior’s room was open the tiniest crack. The room was dark except for the faint glow coming from Junior’s and Billy’s shared computer. It wouldn’t hurt if I took a quick look around, he thought. Junior is out finding coffee, and I’m the man in charge here!

Dr. Frost tiptoed across the hall and carefully opened the door. He laughed quietly to himself. This was perfect! Junior had logged on to his e-mail, and then forgotten to turn his computer off. He always found that the best policy in life was never to trust anyone. Dr. Frost clicked the first e-mail on the long list of opened mail.

From: AAA@gmail.com

To: supersecretspy@gmail.com

Subject: Sub’s location

Great job, Junior. You have successfully planted the tracking device on Frost Bite’s sub. We’re on our way. Remember, keep a low profile. Dr. Frost cannot find out you’re working for us.

I can’t believe this! I’m supposed to be an evil genius! Dr. Frost thought. How could I let an A.A.A. agent on board without even knowing?

It was because of the e-mail that Dr. Frost had pushed the red button. As his finger depressed the large red circle, he grinned like a cat that had out smarted the mouse. His sub would be invincible. The red button had deployed a protective shield that prevented any GPS or computer communication from coming either in or out of the submarine. And his shipment was due to depart in about 24 hours. He had all the illegally refined minerals and oil he would need to sell on the black market to make a ton of money.

Back at the A.A.A. Tim said to Bob, “I know a man named Doctor Z., who works at Wilson Infrasound Technologies at McMurdo. Maybe he could help us. Infrasound measures frequencies of sound that are to low for humans to hear. Perhaps that would work for tracking the sub.”

Bob spun his chair around. “Ok, let’s e-mail him, Tim.”

To: Dr.z@gmail.com

From: AAA@gmail.com

Hello Dr. Z,

I was wondering if you could help us track a sub in the 60^th parallel with your Infrasound technologies?

Tim

AAA

To:  AAA@gmail.com

From: Dr.z@gmail.com

Tim,

My technology can’t do that, but a friend of mine down here in McMurdo Station can. He works with aqua-sound technology. I use infrasound to monitor nuclear testing around the world. My friend can tell you about aqua sound. He works on a seismology ship that uses sound to track the ocean floor and objects in the ocean. Maybe his technology will help you find a ship. His E-mail address is Jeff@gmail.com.

Good luck!

Dr. Z

Tim opened a new message on his computer. It began:

Jeff,

I got your name from Dr. Z at McMurdo Station.

Chapter 5

The Australian Navy had been alerted.  They had also contracted with a oil company to use one of their seismic ships to map the area Dr. Frost was thought to be in.  Submarines from Australia and the U.S. had been also called to the area.

Frost’s sub was moving snail-like, careful to avoid icebergs in the Ross Ice Shelf. He knew that nine-tenths of an iceberg lay beneath the water and he didn’t want to take the chance to hit one of these big fellows. Dr. Frost had told Joe, his body guard to kill Junior as soon as possible.  He had been betrayed and he was seething with revenge.  It would only be about 1 hour before the sub would hit the open seas and then it would be near impossible to find it.  He wanted Junior dead, so that there would be no chance of any more communication.  He wasn’t sure what else Junior might have up his sleeve.

“Where is that Junior?” grunted Dr. Frost to himself. “Um…..I don’t know, Dr. Frost” said Joe in an uncertain voice. “I wasn’t asking you - you airhead” growled Dr. Frost. “I’m sorry Dr. Frost” Joe mumbled.   Dr. Frost didn’t reply he just walked away in an angry motion to his laboratory and stared into his computer screens with anger in his eyes and Googled how to assassinate an agent without anyone finding out. Whilst Dr. Frost was on the computer….

Chapter 6

Nothing much more was going on inside the HQ. The only action that was going on was Joe giving Billy and Shirley hand wrestles. Of course, Joe won so Shirley and Billy gave Joe a mental task and with no surprises Joe failed. Joe had forgotten the important job Dr. Frost had given him. This went on for hours until all three were exhausted mentally and physically, so all three went to sleep. Whilst the three were asleep the door to the entertainment area opened slowly and in popped Juniors head, he saw the three asleep so he quietly crept inside and went to his sleeping area to write down notes in his notebook about the stuff he has found out until he heard a bump. Junior got out his bed to go investigate, he walked around the corner and saw Dr. Frost tinkering around, Frost didn’t notice him so he kept sly, he had a closer look and realized that what Dr. Frost was tinkering around with was a bomb. “Wow that’s a really big bomb Junior thought to himself.” He quickly walked the opposite way back towards his sleeping area to e-mail the AAA.

From: supersecretspy@gmail.com

To: AAA@gmail.com

Subject: The Bomb

I just saw Dr. Frost tinkering around with a really big bomb. I think he’s making the timer for it to blow up his lair. I think he could be onto us. Call in the big guns!

From: AAA@gmail.com

To:  Supersecretspy.com

Subject: Reply-The Bomb realized that

Okay, be careful. Find out what you can.

“Okay, should I confront him, no I shouldn’t, maybe I should” mumble Junior. “Maybe I should just talk to the others about it, I know I’ll talk to Joe he’s stupid enough to tell all”. Junior whispered to himself feeling extremely smart. “Oh, he’s asleep, I’ll do it later”. So Junior went to spy on Dr. Frost.

Junior’s special training was not enough to sense someone following him. Dressed in all white and pulling a hood over his head – Joe crept along the ice corridor following Junior.

Deep in the Southern Ocean: The sub was moving snail-like, careful to avoid icebergs in the Ross Ice Shelf. Captain Wilco knew that nine-tenths of an iceberg lay beneath the water and he didn’t want to take the chance to hit one of these big fellows.  They carried all the people who’d built the base – Frost would take no chances in getting caught and who would believe them if they told their story back on dry land? The crew wondered about the devices they had built. Those strange machines that tracked meteorites and carried them back in their bellies. The drills and pumps leaching oil out of the Antarctic territory. They had been working for months and a huge stockpiles were building up. The machines were self-sufficient. The crew just weren’t sure why Frost needed to be there himself….

Junior was on his way back to his room when the first bullet whizzed by his head.  He grabbed his concealed weapon and fired back.  He saw someone in white clothing dive behind an ice partition. “Oh, no!” he thought, “I’ve been found out!.”  He grabbed his pistol and hid behind the ice.

Junior shouted, “Give up, there is no escape!”  In spy school they had taught him to never apologize, never admit you are wrong, and to take control of every situation.  Looking at his surroundings he noticed icicles above Joe’s head. Thinking fast, Junior shot the ceiling and icicles and knocked Joe unconscious.

###########################################

The arrival of armed men from the AAA caught the minions and workers unexpectedly.  Within minutes they had them all captured, including Bill and Shirley and had them rounded up.  They then began the process of restraining them and taking some back to McMurdo.  Dr. Frostbite was not among the prisoners.  Junior had tranquilized him just before he had was able to detonate the bomb.  His ice building and all its equipment were now in the possession of the AAA.

Junior became a hero and received a metal from presidents’ of Australia and the U.S.  He never talked about what Dr. Frost had told him before he he became immobilized .  He would carry that secret with him forever.

The chilly September morning warmed in the fall sunrise as my father’s expedition set sail. I will never forget the look on his face when he left. Looking around I saw tears streaming around everyone’s face as they were saying goodbye to their loved ones. Too young to understand, my mother cradled me in her arms as we walked away. The feeling of her wrapped around me was comforting.

Even though I didn’t understand, the day brought a certain sadness to ma. For a period of time, her warm heart grew cold. Year’s later, reports of an expedition gone missing were coming in with every ship.  Ma’s cold heart returned.

A knock on the door usually meant bill collectors and auditors, but not today. Today it was something much closer to the heart. Today it was a broken man seeking forgiveness of something that wasn’t his fault.

In his hand he carried a little black package. After a few short words to Ma, she hugged him and they both broke down and cried. I didn’t know this man, but he seemed to throw a blanket of sadness over the whole house. Ma handed me the package, and told me she couldn’t bear to see it.

Chapter 1:

“Cooper Green! Get your butt down here right know and help me with the dishes!”

“Alright mom. Just give me a second.”

I hurried down the stairs before my mom got mad. Tomorrow was my 14^th birthday, and I didn’t want my mom to take away any of my presents before I even got them. I wish we had a dishwasher, but we just couldn’t afford it.

The next morning I woke up to the biggest surprise of all. My dad was sitting at the table drinking coffee. He was an inventor, but most of his contraptions had failed, so he never made much money and was hardly ever home. I devoured my oatmeal and scurried outside. The cold September air chilled my entire body as I stepped outside of our two-bedroom apartment and waited for the bus. Today was the day that Mr. Thomas, my science teacher, would announce the winner of the “National Youth Polar Exploration” contest. School was a lot of fun, and I was good at it too. With straight A’s and a 4.0 GPA, I was known as the brainiac of the school, not that I mind though. No one really knew me, and the ones that did, only did because I helped them with their homework every once in a while. I had no friends my age; never did except when I was six. I had a 4-year-old neighbor who I would trade hot wheels with in exchange for reading his dad’s collection of encyclopedias. But, I hardly count that.

Finally eighth hour arrived, I got my books out of my locker, and ran to room 37 with excitement. Mr. Thomas was standing in the front of the class holding a manila envelope.

“Congratulations class, we have a genius among us.”

Silence swallowed the room as he began to open the envelope.

After school on the bus ride home, holding onto my seat was all I could do to keep myself from exploding out of it. When my stop came I raced off the bus and into my house clutching round trip tickets to Antarctica. I arrived, winded, to a scene that made my heart skip a few beats and nearly stopped.

Dad was lying on the floor holding a golden object to his heart. He was pale-faced and didn’t look well. Ma was in the corner crying. I wasn’t sure what was happening here, but I immediately fell down by my dad and started crying. Seconds later I heard sirens and saw people rushing into the apartment. As they carried his struggling body out of the apartment on a stretcher, the gold object fell out of his hands, but was ignored. My mom ran out with the crowd only after telling me she would call as soon as she knew anything. Usually I enjoyed being home alone. I liked the quiet. But today, silence penetrated my skin like a thousand hot knives all ending up at my heart and killing me slowly. In reality I was fine, but my dad wasn’t okay.

I remembered the gold object and slowly bent down to examine it. It had some strange indecipherable writing with a little bow and a note that said, “ Dear Cooper, when you get there, this little work of art should come in handy, love Dad.” I wasn’t sure where there was or what he meant by work of art. To me it was just a pocket watch with an extinct language. In the back of my head the only place I could think of was Antarctica. But how did he know?

Chapter 2:

“Can I please have a hot chocolate?” Cooper asked the waitress politely.

“Sure I will just be a minute”

As Cooper was waiting he decided to take the watch out of his pocket and have another look.

“Mum have you ever seen this before.” Cooper asked enthusiastically.

“Well Cooper let me see if I can remember the story your father told……………………. Coopers mum thought…………….. Ah that’s it I remember, it is something to do with your great great great grandfather, he went on an expedition to Antarctica and he modified this when he was there. He sent it to his wife or your great great great grandmother, so she could keep it safe, but when she received it she also got the bad news that her husband was missing, presumably dead in the great white wastes of Antarctica.

She passed the watch to her son and her son past it down and so on, so every other member of the family before you has held this watch and wondered what it all meant, and did your father and so will you.”

“Here is your hot chocolate, oh that is a pretty cool watch where did you get it from?” asked the waitress.

“Um well my dad gave it to me; speaking of dad can we go see him now?” Cooper asked eagerly.

“Sure let’s go see him kiddo.”

“That kid Cooper has a watch that looks exactly like that picture you have, the really old picture.” The waitress exclaimed to the chef.

“Really you don’t say! that’s interesting.” The chef said trying to hide his excitement.

“Hi dad how are you going.”

“I’m good now that your here, Cooper promise me you will take care of that watch when you go on that adventure of yours just remember that watch will help you in more ways then you think.”

Chapter 3

“Wait, I thought you didn’t know about my winning the contest yet?”

“Well, son Mr. Thomas gave me a phone call when he found out, which was last week,” he sighed. “Keeping it a secret was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my life”

Ma listened at the door as her husband and son had one of those tear-jerking moments. After she heard only silence, she walked in.

“Well, Cooper, we best get you home.”

Walking out of the hospital, a strange man was staring at me. His appearance startled me and kind of felt weird. Chills ran down my spine as he winked at me, I tried to ignore him and just keep walking. After that odd encounter, I tried my hardest just to forget about it and drive home.

On the doorstep, sat a UPS package addressed to Mr. Cooper Green. Immediately after spotting it, I ripped open the package. In it were all the necessities to go to Antarctica. There was also a letter with the alarming news of my plane departing from LA to Hobart, Tasmania tomorrow. I have been dodging my mom’s maternal instincts since that letter arrived. Around almost every corner was my mom holding a sharpie and asking if I had any more underwear to initial. Eventually, the night came and I was left to wonder what Hobart had in store for me.

Two days later I was at the training camp in Hobart, Tasmania. They taught us lots of things about survival, frostbite, how to build snow shelters, and many other practical things. When we were done for the day, I walked to the dormitory to write a letter to mom and dad. As I walked down the hallway, the door to my room was wide open. I figured I must have been tired and left it open, but when I opened my suitcase, my belongings were scattered inside. Someone had been through my stuff. I frantically searched through my suitcase for the pocket watch, but I couldn’t find it. Then I realized I had it in my pocket the entire time. It seemed strange because none of my things were missing. Later, I reported the break in to the camp manager. He had no idea who could have done such a thing, but he said the only people with keys to my room would be the maids. I had no other troubles at the camp, and was now certified to go to Antarctica.

As I lay in my bed that last night in Hobart, the butterflies in my stomach and the visions of dazzling aurora displays, giant ice floes, curious penguins, and bloodthirsty leopard seals kept me from falling into a peaceful slumber. When my eyes opened to the waiting tomorrow, the greatest adventure of my life would begin.

Chapter 4:

Beep beep beep beep beep

“Ah time to get up, man I slept bad, I am so excited I couldn’t sleep,” Cooper thought to himself

Suddenly a strange lady walked in to his room and offered him a vegemite sandwich, and she said, “Hi I am Sarah and I will be your caretaker for the trip, we are going to become great friends.”

“Hhhhhiii Sarah um you startled me I didn’t know that I was going to have a female caretaker.”

“Well there was a bit of a mix up but anyway we will have heaps of fun. Anyway, we have a little bit of time this morning before the boat leaves. So I’m going to show you some of my favourite Hobart sites.”

Cooper blinked twice. It was all a little too much this early in the morning. Especially Sarah’s Aussie accent! It was so different to what he was used to at home.

“I thought this morning we could go to the Australian Antarctic Division at Kingston. It’s about 20 minutes drive South from here”…

Cooper and Sarah spent the morning trying on clothes and looking at krill and early snow suits in Kingston. Then they went to the Botanical gardens and looked at their Sub-Antarctic plants. Sarah bought Cooper an ice-cream. Then they wandered around Salamanca Place where the Saturday market was on. Cooper bought some souvenirs for his Mum and Dad. He also tried a wallaby sausage from a stall. Sarah explained they were a type of kangaroo, which made Cooper feel kind of strange. He also wrote a postcard to send to his parents – Sarah arranged for a friend to post it for him Monday morning.

Dear Mom and Dad, This morning I met my caretaker for the trip her name is Sarah, she is very nice! First we went to the Australian Antarctic division and tried on some snow suits and big boots, then we went to the Botanical gardens and looked at the Antarctic garden, it was so cool. Sarah bought me an ice-cream very yummy!!!!! We made our way to Salamanca market, I had a wallaby sausage for lunch, and wallaby is a small kangaroo. Any way have to go Sarah wants to take me to the TMAG so I can put my hand in the ice. Lots of love from Cooper xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox P.S missing you already

To escape from the heat of the sun Cooper and Sarah went into the TMAG (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery). Cooper had been over excited all day and now he was a bit tired. Sarah said “It’s ok Cooper, you’ll enjoy this. And then we can make our way to the icebreaker”.

Sarah was right. Cooper did enjoy the museum. There were strange animals and rocks and artefacts from the Tasmanian Aboriginals. But Cooper enjoyed the Antarctic exhibition the most. In the centre was a map of Antarctica made out of ice. There were lots of people – old and young – there looking at it. Some kids had made a handprint in the ice. Cooper put his hand into the handprint and thought “Soon I’ll really be there”. He watched a 3d film about the early explorers, looked at pictures of the giant Patagonian tooth fish, and a harpoon so twisted in a whale it looked like a piece of black string that had been tied into a knot.

He and Sarah sat in the round room near the entrance to the exhibition. They looked at the map on the floor. It was made in MMVI (2006) but made to look like an ancient map. At the top it was almost fully mapped, but at the bottom it showed the southern part of the ocean with ship wrecks and monsters of the deep. “Here be dragons” said Sarah. Cooper didn’t understand what she meant at first. But after a little while he realised it was another part of the adventure he was on: more people had climbed Everest than explored Antarctica.

Sarah and Cooper left the TMAG. Their bags were already on the boat. They stopped for a drink and a packet of hot chips wrapped in white paper at a Fish N Chips store shaped like a whale.

The sun was still high in the sky as they entered the boat. Cooper spent the next hour looking around his room and setting up his stuff. He blu-tacked a picture of his parents to the wall next to where he would be sleeping.

Chapter 5

Awakened by the rock and sway of this huge boat cruising through the open waters, I sat up sharply. Last night was not an easy night to sleep. For hours, I was awake tossing and turning while thinking about the upcoming adventure. Apparently, I slept long enough to have a terrifying dream about what awaited me on the icy continent. When I recovered from the shock of my strange dream, I sat up for a while and thought about today’s events. Nothing. That’s all I had planned. “I better go and find Sarah,” I said to myself.

Not paying any attention as I walked down the hall, I tripped over an inconvenient wrinkle in the hall carpet. About to hit the cold hard floor, a pair of huge, strong hands grabbed me, spilling coffee, hash browns, and ketchup everywhere.

“Oh, gosh! I’m so sorry, sir!”

“That’s quite all right, son. Just try to be more careful.”

“Okay, sir. Thank you for saving me. Where can I get a mop for this mess?”

“Just go on to breakfast, I’ll take care of this.”

Just then, the breakfast bell rang.

I hurried to the cafeteria. The sounds of scientists chatting, forks and glasses clicking and clinking, and the occasional shatter of a dropped plate filled the room. I got in the buffet line and heaped piles of scrambled egg, fried potatoes and bacon onto my tray. This was the first morning I felt well enough to eat.

After filling the tray I looked around for Sarah. There she was, the tallish, blonde haired, athletic looking girl with those striking green eyes sat at a round table chatting with the other scientists. I sat down by her and ate quietly. I was thinking.

I looked around the room as Sarah and I ate. All of a sudden I spotted the man that had saved me from sprawling in the hall staring at me from a corner. That look he gave me sent shivers down my spine. “Sarah, have you seen that man before?” I asked looking his direction.

“Where?”

“There,” I pointed at him.

“ Uhm, no I don’t think I have. Why?”

“ I’m just wondering; he looks familiar to me.”

“Okay. With all the people you’ve met in the last week, I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone looks familiar.” She smiled at me, but I couldn’t help but notice the concerned look that crossed her green eyes like a shadow.

Later that night, as I lay in my bed, looking at my pocket watch, thinking of my dad, Sarah’s voice came from out side my door, startling me.

“Cooper! Come out side! Come look!”

“What is it?” I asked nervously.

“The Aurora!”

I was so excited; was it really as beautiful and breath taking as they said it was? YES! The green, red, purple, pink and white lights danced as if they’d been practicing for years. In a way, I guess they had been. This was infinitely more beautiful than the pictures I’d seen before. Playfully running and leaping across the blackened sky, the aurora seemed endless.

All of a sudden I noticed a faint glow coming from my pocket. I reached inside and pulled out . . . my pocket watch? Stranger still, the watch was glowing. Unusual and unfamiliar symbols seemed to be drawn onto the back of the watch by the light rays all around.

The next few days passed by uneventfully, and before I knew it, I was unloading the ship with all the scientists and crewmembers in Antarctica. It was a slow, tedious trip to Casey station, but what we found when we got there, was even stranger than the incident with my pocket watch.

Chapter 8
Kenai Middle School

The next morning I woke up earlier than usual.  It was about an hour and a half before breakfast.  I couldn’t sleep any longer, as I lay awake wondering what in the world “WILKES” had to do with me, the watch or anything at all.  I had to know.  I felt as if an unseen force were drawing me toward the encased, frozen skeleton of Wilkes station.  I was so distraught about it last night that Matt arranged for me to go with him and the scientists to explore Wilkes today.  I hurried as I dressed and thought about the adventure looming before me.  Sarah decided to stay behind despite how much she was looking forward to it.  She had several things to do in the next couple of days and felt she couldn’t afford the time.
Finally, the clock slowly dragged itself to 7:00 A.M.  I headed down the hall to find Sarah.  I saw her sitting at a table chatting with Matt.  I walked over and said hello and got in line for some food.  While waiting in line, I looked around.  Again, that strange, familiar face appeared from behind the buffet line.  The man I had collided with on the boat stared back at me, sending a chill down my body.  I tried to ignore him.  Sarah had told me he was just the cook, but I couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling of worry and fear.
Just then Matt stormed into the dinning hall as if he were about to explode.  He didn’t even say hello before he blurted out, “So, you know those body parts?  The hands and feet?
“Yeah,” Sarah and I said in sync.
“Well, I tested them.”
“And?” I questioned, eager to get more.
“They date back to almost the exact year the Golden Ridell entered this bay!  Isn’t it exciting these remains are from the Golden Ridell!”
“The Golden Ridell?” I stuttered.  “You mean THE Golden Ridell?”
“Yeah!  Exciting, isn’t it?”
“I’ll say!  My great-great-great grandfather was a member of the crew.”
I could feel the mood of the room change.  “Cooper Green, you hang onto that watch of yours,” Matt said with his eyes saying the rest.  This Wilkes Station thing is going to be more exciting that I thought.
Shortly after breakfast, we took a motorboat a few kilometers across the bay.  Landing at the bottom of what seemed to be a table of ice that Wilkes sat upon.  We climbed up the ice in silence.  We stared across the horizon scanning the scene of icy remains.  It was painfully clear why Wilkes was abandoned and left as a frozen museum.
Breaking the silence, Matt said, “That watch of yours, do you still have it?”  I nodded and gently tapped my pocket.  “Good,” he said, “take it out and let’s have a look.”  I did as he said and Matt continued, Cooper, you said your great-great-great grandfather was aboard the Golden Ridell, correct?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“Where did you get that watch?”
“My father gave it to me.”
“And, did he tell you anything about it?”
“ Well, no.  It was kind of a bad time,” I said remembering that unforgettable day and all the emotions.
“ I suppose it’s up to me then.  I’m guessing this watch has been handed down over the generations,” Matt started.  I nodded and he continued.  “Well, here’s the deal.  This watch is believed to be the key to finding the cursed treasure the Golden Ridell carried and dropped here to relieve the crew of the awful curse.”  I was stunned.  I knew my watch was special, but I never realized it could be THAT special.
Chapter 9
Sliding down the ice to the abandoned station was much quicker and more fun than the climb up the ice.  Immediately, we began exploring the icy caverns of scientific investigation and found our way into several rooms in one of the end buildings.  Once inside, we found some puzzling and unexpected items for a place that had been under snow and ice for the last four or five years.  We came across some freshly burned wood on a cast iron cooking stove and the remnants of some eggs on a plate.  What in the world?  Matt said, “Hello?  Is anybody here?  I thought this station was abandoned,”
We didn’t really expect to get an answer to Matt’s question, so when we spotted the figure of someone in the shadows of the far corner, it gave us quite a fright.  Before we could ask any of the millions of questions flying around our heads, the figure stepped into the light.  Standing before us was the most unusual woman we had ever seen.  Her red, unkempt hair resembled the tentacles of a squid squirming toward some unsuspecting prey.  She appeared to be in her forties; she wore a smudged, white researchers coat that fit snuggly around her ample girth; and her glasses tilted across the edge of her nose.  But, the thing I noticed most were her eyes.  Where had I seen those eyes before?
“Well, I’m sure you are as surprised to see me as much as I am to see you,” the now smiling face with red cheeks said to us.  “Let me introduce myself,” she mumbled as she moved toward us.  “My name is Roberta, and I am a research scientist studying permafrost here and at Casey station.  Although, I must admit I haven’t actually been over to Casey in several years.  I found working at Casey much too “busy” for me.  I don’t work well around so many other people, so when I found I could access this end building at Wilkes through an ice tunnel even when it is submerged in its wintry covering, I convinced my sponsors Wilkes was a better place to carry out my research.”
“Oh,” I managed to stutter, just barely recovering from the shock of finding someone here.
“Well, we are pleased to meet you Roberta,” Matt said brightly.  “I’m Matt and this is Cooper,” Matt continued while putting his hand on my shoulder and gently nudging me to the door.  “No one told us to expect to run into you.  We should probably get back with our group now.”
“You mean there are more of you wandering around over here?” questioned Roberta while narrowing her puzzled but familiar eyes.
“Oh, yes,” Matt answered while continuing a path to the exit.
Stepping in front of us, Roberta blocked the door and said, “Well, now that you are here, you should let me show you around the place.  I don’t get visitors very often, and my manners are a little rusty.  Please forgive me for any rudeness and let me make it up to you by giving you a little tour of the facility and a look at my research.”
I sensed Matt’s hesitation and urgency to get out of this uncomfortable situation, but Roberta took my elbow and pulled me quickly toward a narrow hall.  Not knowing what else to do, Matt followed.
“Well, you’ve already seen the kitchen area.  It’s not much, but I get along.  I receive supplies from the cooks at Casey station on a weekly basis.  I’m usually busy when they come, so they just leave what I need and come back the next week,” Roberta explained while inching closer to the end of the hall.
We stopped at a corner where the hall continued in one direction and a small bedroom completed the other side.  Directing us into the room, Roberta continued babbling about permafrost and how working alone for ten years or so had helped her focus on her research.  She claimed she was on the brink of making the greatest discovery of her life.
Two single beds were pushed against opposite sides of the walls with a small dresser between them and a night table under a picture of an old ship on the wall.  Matt and I moved closer to the wall to examine the picture.  We almost didn’t hear the “click” of the door as it closed.  We turned just in time to hear the door lock from the outside and Roberta’s retreating steps echo as she hurried away.
Lunging for the door, I blurted out, “What the?” as I unsuccessfully tried to open the door.  “Why would she lock us in here, Matt?”  I turned to see Matt studying the picture.
“Cooper,” Matt finally said.  “Come take a look at this.”
I joined Matt at the oil painting.  It looked like any other painting of an old sailing vessel until Matt’s finger traced some letters on the bow of the ship.  “The Golden Ridell!”  I exclaimed.
“And that’s not all,” Matt continued.  “Look what this crewmember is showing to one of his mates in the doorway of the galley.”
“My watch!”  I screamed inside of my head, but it left my lips as barely a whisper.

Chapter 10
Matt and I sat for hours on the bed alternately looking at the picture and studying the watch.  It took awhile before we noticed the aurora lighted the sky behind the ship.  Once we spotted the aurora, we took a closer look at the watch.  Sure enough!  There appeared to be some kind of a riddle or a map reflecting in the southern display.
“Let me see your watch,” Matt suddenly instructed.  Slowly taking the watch out of my pocket and handing it to Matt, I wondered if the watch was a “missing link” of sorts that would lead to the famed treasure.
“This is definitely the same watch,” Matt declared, putting my watch up next to the picture.  “More than likely,” this weather worn seaman is your great-great-great grandfather!”
I stared, speechless, at the image in front of me.  Taking the watch from Matt, I looked back up at the image of my ancestor.  At that moment, a flash of understanding ripped through my mind.  “Matt,” I exclaimed excitedly.  “The watch will lead us to the treasure that was aboard the Golden Ridell.  We must be near it.  Look at the mountains and the terrain around the ship.  It was docked in this bay!  In fact, this station is practically the exact spot where the sailors would have landed and come to shore!”
Matt sat down on one of the beds while he processed what I had said.  “Okay,” he continued, then the watch should give us the clues we need to get to the treasure.  We obviously need the lights of aurora to reveal it.  The aurora researchers at Casey station said we would be in for a brilliant display tonight.”
“Great,” I replied.  “And, here we are stuck in this dungeon.”
“Well, yes,” Matt answered quietly, “but maybe we can figure a way to escape.”
I practically laughed out loud at the thought of either one of us having any chance of opening the metal door.  Even if we did, where would we go?  Where were the others?  How would we find the treasure?  What did Roberta have to do with all of this?  What would she do to us?  What would Sarah do when we didn’t return to Casey Station?  Were we all in some kind of serious danger?  Several hours had passed since our arrival and we both knew we were running out of time.
“Since we’re stuck here,” Matt began, “why don’t we get a little sleep?  I’m much better at solving problems after I’ve slept awhile.”
I agreed and we each stretched out on top of the beds.  Matt was snoring within five minutes, but I was too excited – No!  I was too afraid to close my eyes for long.  After tossing and turning for what seemed like hours, I finally got up and looked at the dresser and night table.  On top of each were the usual things a person would keep in her bedroom: a mirror, a hairbrush, lotion, chap stick, tissues and a box of stationery.  I absently opened the box and clumsily dropped it to the floor.  I began putting the contents back in when I came across a paper clip.  The noise must have awakened Matt.  He startled me a little by saying, “Cooper, where did you get that paper clip?”
After explaining how he used to scavenge midnight snacks from his mom’s pantry when he was a kid by picking the lock on the pantry door with a paper clip, Matt worked for what seemed like hours before a resounding “click” rewarded his efforts, and the door to our prison slowly creaked open.  We rushed down the hall, through the kitchen and out the tunnel.  Once outside we were worried about Roberta finding us, so we hid behind one of the huge tires on a land roving kind of vehicle to make a plan.  The aurora was just beginning its graceful dance and I took out my watch.  Suddenly, we heard footsteps approaching.  I was so frightened, I could hear my heart beating wildly in my chest and my breath came out in short, frosty puffs.  Matt decided to take matters into his own hands and lunged from behind the tire, tackling the intruder and rolling to a stop on top of the person, pinning his or her arms to the ground.  It only took a couple of moments before I realized the struggling mass of arms, legs, boots, and gloves pinned down by Matt, was Sarah.
Matt jumped up somewhat embarrassed and let Sarah clamor to her feet.  “Sarah!”  I cried in relief, “What are you doing here?”
She told us she was worried when we didn’t come back to Casey Station.  “A search party was organized, but they were planning on waiting until morning,” she told us with her green eyes growing a bit misty.  “I couldn’t wait.  I ‘borrowed’ a boat and came over as soon as I could.”
I began to tell her about Roberta, the treasure, the ship, my watch and everything we had learned.  She looked at me with real concern and then up at Matt.  “Matt,” Sarah started, “is he going to be okay?”
“I don’t know,” Matt replied.  “But if we’re going to stay here tonight, we need to get inside.  I noticed a storage room just barely past the tunnel before the kitchen.  It should be warm enough to make it through the night, and still safe enough if we need to run.”  We went inside and fell into our own hurricane of thoughts.  Soon we were sleeping amid sacks of flour, sugar, salt and other supplies.
I woke up what seemed like minutes later.  As I looked around remembering where I was, I saw Matt lying across the room still sound asleep.  There was a space between us that I didn’t think much about.  I drifted back to sleep, but seconds later I woke up with a fright.  Sarah!  She was sleeping there when I fell asleep.  Where was she now?  Was this part of the curse?
“Matt!” I screamed, shaking him from his peaceful slumber.
“Wha…, What?  Cooper, what’s wrong?
“Sarah!” I yelled, pointing to where I’d last seen her.
Matt sat pondering for a moment, and then a look of understanding crossed his face.  “They took her,” he said stunned.
“Who?  How do you know?”
“Just trust me.  We’re going to get her back.  From here on out, you just need to trust me, okay?  I’ll get us out of this – all of us.
“Okay,” I said as if I had any other choice.  I followed Matt out of our night shelter through the kitchen, down the hall and into a maze of tunnels that lead to a recessed door that was slightly ajar.
Matt hollered through the door, “Hey!  Give her back or you’ll regret ever coming to this forsaken continent.”  Matt sounded much braver than I felt.
“Give us the watch and you’ll get your wish!” boomed a man’s voice from inside the room.
“Who’s that?” I asked quite surprised to hear a man’s voice.
“My name is Robert,” came the voice just before the door slammed shut.
“Who’s Robert?” I wondered out loud.
“You’ll find out,” Matt told me quickly.
“Open this door, or I will,” threatened Matt.
“No you won’t,” Robert’s voice teased.
With a swift, strong kick Matt crashed through the door.  At first, I had a hard time understanding what I saw.  The realization hit me like a ton of bricks.  Of course!  Seeing them next to each other, it was so obvious!  Robert’s eyes!  They were just like the man’s at the hospital, the man I collided with on the boat, the cook at Casey Station!  He was Robert!  Robert and Roberta – twins of course!  How could we not put it all together?
I came out of my trance to Matt’s voice saying, “Cooper, give them the watch.”
“My watch?  But it, I, uh why?
“Just do it,” he said firmly.
Nervously, I did as he said.  Robert snatched it greedily and held it like a precious diamond.  “Take her.  She’s useless to us now,” he said, whisking his knife down the ropes that bound Sarah.  I ran to her and hugged her.  Her arms felt warm and safe, but I knew we were far from it.
“At last, after all these years, Roberta dear, here it is in my hand — the last key to the Golden Ridell’s treasure!”
“Robert, don’t over react.  We haven’t found the thing yet.”
“This treasure was meant for me!” Robert declared with insane certainty.
“You?” questioned Roberta.
“I mean, us, dear Roberta.  I’ve been waiting all my life since father told me about the Golden Ridell, the treasure, our lineage, and that thieving snit, Samuel Green!”
“Well shut up and go find the stinkin’ thing!” Roberta’s piercing voice exclaimed.
Matt motioned for Sarah and Cooper to leave.  There were quickly out of earshot of the twins’ conversation.
“Will you please fill us in, Matt?”  I asked when we finally got to a quiet place.
“As soon as we get to a safe spot,” Matt said, and we hurried to the waterfront.  “Okay,” Matt began.  “Last night, I found a computer and some old research.  Roberta and Robert have a great-great grandfather who, like your great-great-great-grandfather, was aboard the Golden Ridell.  They believe the treasure is theirs.”
“And now it is.  They have my watch,” I interrupted.
“Oh, come on, Coop!  Have more faith in your family members!  He was smarter than that.  Their great-great grandfather was captain, but it was Samuel Green that was booted off the ship to bury the treasure.”
Sarah’s voice interrupted, “But, wouldn’t it be under 10 feet of ice by now?”
“Well, yeah.  But, it’s in a safe; a secret chamber if you will.  I found it last night.  It’s about 30 paces from where we’re standing.”
“But, isn’t my watch the key?  How do we open it?” I asked him.
“Like I said before, the watch is only a guide, not a key at all.  Your Samuel Green was brilliant.  All we need is a drop of his blood – your blood, Cooper.”
Matt clipped off the last of his sentence quickly, as we heard the twins voices closing in on the hunt.  Quietly, we followed Matt around the water’s edge to a large rock that stuck up like a lion protecting his kingdom.
“What now?” I whispered nervously.
“Prick your finger,” he said, handing me his pocketknife.  I closed my eyes and tapped my finger on the sharp point of the small knife.  The wound spilled a few drops of blood on the rock.  I handed Matt the knife as the ground beneath me rumbled and shook.
“What’s happening?!” I yelled over the splitting earth.  Sarah grabbed me and pulled me away from the hole.
Lying on our bellies, we peered into the gaping chasm.  There it lay in all its glory.  The treasure of the Golden Ridell had been recovered after all these years frozen under this forgotten frontier.

]]> http://iem.tmag.tas.gov.au/?feed=rss2&p=35 http://iem.tmag.tas.gov.au/?p=34 http://iem.tmag.tas.gov.au/?p=34#comments Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:32:29 +0000 admin http://iem.tmag.tas.gov.au/?p=34

A story written and illustrated by pupils in Grade 4/5 H at Deloraine Primary School, Tasmania, Australia and Grade 3D at Badger Road Primary School, North Pole, Alaska U.S.A. 2008

Chapter1: Departure

On a lonely street in Rosetta, (a suburb of Hobart) in an old house, lived a child named James Benjamin. He lived with his parents. His father was an Antarctic scientist and had been to Antarctica many times. His mother was a chef and she owned a local restaurant. James had a friend named Louisa Lola (Lisa for short). James went to the same school as Lisa and they had been friends for five years. Lisa’s father is also an Antarctic scientist and he was friends with James’ dad.

One day James invited Lisa to come over after school. At three o’clock Lisa and James were walking home past the restaurant that his mum owned when she came out and told them to go home because James’ dad had a huge surprise for them. They walked home talking and wondering what the surprise could be.

When they reached the front gate they ran all the way inside to the lounge room, where Mr. Benjamin was standing in front of the fireplace. He turned around beaming at them and told them to sit down. At that moment they saw a twinkle in his eye.

‘Has your mother told you that I have a surprise for you two?’ he asked.

‘Yes’, answered James and Lisa in synchronisation. ‘Can you please tell us dad please, please?’ asked James

‘Ok I’ll tell you’. You know how I’ve been very busy lately and I’ve been in my office a lot, well it’s all paid off. Next fortnight we are going to……….. Have a guess’.

‘Disneyland!’ guessed James

‘No. We are going to Antarctica and Lisa you are invited to come with your father to Antarctica with us!’ said his father with a grin on his face.

‘Wow! Are we really going to Antarctica?’ asked the kids happily.

‘Yes, we are going on a boat called the Sea Questor.’

‘Hello’, said James’ Mum who had just walked in through the door.

‘Have you told them honey?’

‘Yes dear’ replied James’ father.

‘We are going to start packing tomorrow and I hope you kids know what the weather is like down there!’ said Mrs. Benjamin in excitement.

That night both the kids had dreams about how wonderful their trip would be.

A fortnight later….

The day came for the huge trip to Antarctica. James and Lisa were so excited that they were up at six o’clock! They had to help get all the big boxes on board the Sea Questor. Once all their things were on board they were ready to set out on the long trip to Antarctica. It would take several weeks.

The captain showed James and Lisa around the boat. The rooms were small but they would do. Although the boat was large it was crammed full of machinery, cargo, supplies and even a helicopter.

As the boat sailed down the Derwent River the water was calm. But when they were four days out to sea it started to get rough. The wind began to howl. The waves became larger and the boat began to rock. The air became colder.

It was hard to get to sleep because of the waves crashing against the boat. James felt sea sick. He started to spew. Lisa ran out of the room very quickly at that moment.

James was sick for five days. Lisa felt sorry for him and went to visit him everyday. She felt fortunate to not have been sea sick yet.

After a fortnight on the boat they started to see ice in the water. ‘This is amazing,’ said Lisa.

‘It really is amazing,’ said James.

The ice made a shushing sound against the side of the boat. A couple of days later the children noticed pancake ice and then they saw their first iceberg and standing on top of it was a group of penguins.

Lisa was fascinated and stood open mouthed at the rail watching them while James ran around madly snapping photographs with the new digital camera he had bought especially for the trip.

That night James woke suddenly. At first he lay there wondering what had happened. Then the boat suddenly came to a shuddering halt. Noisily the motors revved and the boat moved slowly backwards.

James jumped out of bed and struggled into warm clothing and rushed out to the railing to see what was going on. In a few moments he was joined by Lisa who had thrown her clothes on over her pyjamas.

‘What is happening?’ she asked eagerly.

‘I don’t know,’ James replied briefly while trying to peer along the length of the boat to see what was happening at the front.

Just then they were joined by their parents.

‘We have finally reached the pack ice and we are going to have to force our way through,’ explained Mr. Lola.

The children watched fascinated as the huge boat with spot lights blazing moved forward again at full speed. They were jolted off their feet as the boat crashed into the solid ice and caused a split to appear ahead of them. The boat slowly inched its way into the crack until it could go no further and then the whole process of backing up and ramming the ice was repeated again.

Slowly they moved forward in this way for the next two days. Finally the captain announced that they could no longer move forward and they would be unloading supplies and mail for Casey base.

The children were fascinated by the unloading. The huge cranes on the boat swung into action lifting cargo and machinery over the side of the boat and depositing them on the ice.

Suddenly a whole line of all terrain vehicles slowly emerged from the mist and sped towards them. These were the men and women from Casey Base who had come to collect their supplies. Mr. Benjamin explained that these people had been wintering over at the base and this was their first chance to receive fresh supplies and mail from home.

After some time spent talking to expeditioners the boat was ready to slowly back up and move off. The boat made its way slowly back out to the edge of the ice shelf and James and Lisa watched closely as their fathers began to prepare to conduct some of the scientific research that they had come to Antarctica to perform.

A few days later Lisa and James were reading while stretched out on the deck in the pale sunshine when Lisa suddenly said, “Let’s go for a walk around the deck.

‘I’ll race you,’ called James running off. They chased each other around the deck for ten minutes before stopping to catch their breath.

At that moment they looked over the side railing and witnessed………..

Chapter 2

The children looked over the boat railing and saw a polar bear and a leopard seal battling.  They were floating in the choppy cold water.  The children were amazed!  How could a polar bear have gotten this far south?

The polar bear began to attack the seal and the seal fell in the cold waves of the ocean.  The polar bear dropped down on his haunches to rest.  How did he get here?  This place was different than home.  He was a little scared and worried.  He layed down and tried to remember what got him here.

He remembered playing with his brother on the ice while his mother looked for food for the family. While the polar bear  brothers played on the ice they didn’t pay attention to where they were going. The two polar bear siblings fell through a thin part of the Arctic Ice.

The ice had begun to thin as the years had passed.  Mother bear knew it had been different (global warming)  but the brothers only knew of small ice bergs and thin ice. As the brothers tried to get out of the water, a slimy substance covered their bodies.  It was hard for them to get out of the water.  They swam back under the water and again tried to come up to get out.  As they swam farther and farther trying to get onto ice, they couldn’t shake the slimy oily substance from their fur.

Petroleum exploration, extraction, transport, and processing in the Arctic affects polar bears and their habitat in many ways. There are already large installations and operations in the Arctic and the oil and gas business is set to expand in the years ahead.

There is one true offshore oil production installation in the Arctic, in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. Onshore arctic oil installations are currently found in Russia, Canada, and Alaska. Oil and oil products pose serious health risks to polar bears. Contact with oil spills reduce the insulating effect of bears’ fur. The direct effect is that the bear must use more energy to keep warm, and must compensate for this energy loss by increasing its caloric intake, which may be difficult. Given that polar bears have very limited access to food for long periods of time, such an increased demand for food may result in starvation. Polar bears can also ingest oil through grooming and through scavenging and preying on contaminated seals, seabirds, and other prey The ingested oil can, for example, cause liver and kidney damage, and has long-term toxicity. Even a limited amount of oil on the fur of a polar bear can kill it, primarily by poisoning through grooming.

Finally, tired and worn out the polar bear brothers came upon a rocky shore.  They drug? themselves on the rough coast to rest. (polar bear tracker) http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/europe/what_we_do/arctic/polar_bear/index.cfm

Chapter 3: The Fight

It was a leopard seal and a polar bear fighting. The polar bear was winning. There was blood everywhere; you couldn’t really see the ice. The kids ran straight away to where their parents were on the deck, talking about how long it would take to get to the South Pole from their present position.

‘Mum, dad, we saw a polar bear,’ James yelled.

‘As if..! There are no polar bears down here’

‘Come and look,’ said James.

‘Where is it?’ asked Mr Lola.

‘Next to the ship’, said Lisa.

Mr Benjamin went to the side of the ship. ‘That’s silly kids, complete rubbish,’ replied Mr Benjamin.

‘Wow!’ he said as he saw the bear, ‘It really is a polar bear’.

‘That is weird’ said Mrs Benjamin.

‘I know, and there are meant to be no Polar bears in Antarctica’.

‘I wonder how it got here?’ asked James.

Just then the captain of the Sea Questor gave a shout and began pointing to the starboard side of the ship. The children followed the direction of his outstretched hand and saw a man in a small black rubber dinghy being tossed up and down by the huge swell that was being whipped up by the winds.

Whenever the boat bobbed up on the top of the next wave the man would shout and frantically move his hands about before disappearing down into the next trough.

Suddenly the polar bear swam over to the dinghy and started attacking it.

‘Oh no it’s attacking that boat over there’, shouted Lisa with a scared voice.

‘We should help’ said James

‘No it’s too dangerous,’ replied Mr Lola.

‘We can’t get the Sea Questor close enough,’ said the captain. ‘But we can try with the rubber ducky.’

‘It might be our only chance,’ said Mr Benjamin.

‘Ok!’ said Mr Lola. ‘Let’s try.’

The crew quickly launched the rubber dinghy and the two men climbed on board and started the outboard motor. While James, Lisa and the crew held their breath the two men battled the waves and moved ever closer to the man who was by now clinging desperately to the remains of his boat. The polar bear was nowhere to be seen.

They made a grab for the man and missed. They went in for a second shot and succeeded. They grabbed him and pulled him onto their boat.

‘Where has that polar bear come from?’ asked Mr Benjamin.

‘It’s a long story. Thank you for saving me’ answered the man. ‘By the way my name is Robert.’

The crew of the Sea Questor helped the three men on board and led them away to have a hot shower and put on dry clothes. The children hopped from foot to foot waiting impatiently for the adults to reappear. They scanned the sea and the nearby ice looking for the polar bear but they couldn’t see it anywhere.

At last the adults returned carrying steaming mugs of hot tea and Robert began to tell his tale.

I was a crew member on board the ……………sailing from Vancouver to Antarctica. When we had been at sea for several days one of the crew spotted a polar bear in the ocean. The poor thing was a long way from land and a long way from its natural habitat. It was obviously exhausted and was in danger of drowning.

We hauled it on board and found that it was only a cub. We named it K’eyush which means cub in the Inuit language. We spent a lot of time fishing to get food for him and to nurse him back to health.

We were not sure exactly what we were going to do with him. But he would be more at home in Antarctica than sailing around on a boat.’

Robert paused for breath and the children began to ask lots of questions, both talking at once.

‘Just a minute,’ their father’s cried, ‘Let Robert finish his story.’

After a few moments Robert continued. ‘As we neared the ice shelf K’eyush jumped overboard and scrambled on to the ice. Just at that moment everyone was watching the bear and the boat hit an ice berg and it split open the side of the boat, letting the water rush in. I scrambled into the life raft and the waves swept me away from the sinking wreckage. I don’t know what happened to everyone else.’

The captain immediately ordered a change of course and the Sea Questor raced off to search for other survivors. James and Lisa joined the adults lining the rails and scanning the sea for any signs of life. The little polar bear called K’eyush was pushed to the back of their minds.

The captain radioed for help and the boat was soon joined by a helicopter from the nearby Casey Station. After what seemed a long time they began to see wreckage from the stricken ship.

Suddenly James let out a shout. ‘Hey what’s that in the water, Dad’

‘Oh no! It’s an oil spill!!!!’

Chapter 4 - Another Rescue

The oil spill was very large and spreading as the waves took it further and further.  Where were the other people from the ship?  Where was the polar bear?  Lisa and James were worried about both.

“Dad!!!”

“What if the people from the ship are in the oil?  What if the polar bear is?”

James and Lisa didn’t even want to imagine the effect oil would have on either one.

They searched the water for what seemed like hours.  Suddenly they saw something that seemed out of place.  ”A man! A man!”

They saw the man bobbing in the oil slicked water.  As they approached him in the small dinghy they saw the reason he had survived the cold water.  He had on a cold water survival suit.

Further on they saw the polar bear, floating in the water.  He needed to be rescued fast.  His natural cold water survival suit could not survive the oil slicked water.  His fur could not breathe and he would sink and die.

As they pulled closer they worked as a team to get the exhausted K’eyush into the boat.  Even though he was a cub he weighed over twenty pounds.  So everyone helped and they pulled him into the boat and took him back to the research ship.  He needed to be washed off so his fur could breathe.  There was no time to waste for him or the man.

Chapter 5: The Surprise

Once K’eyush was on board he needed to be cleaned up. He was exhausted from swimming in the water and oil. James and Lisa’s job was going to be fairly easy.

It was time to get started so James got the hose to thoroughly wash and rinse Ke’yush down. Lisa meantime collected some detergent from the laundry and poured a generous dollop over the bear’s body. The washing began.

After a while James let out a huge sigh. “Getting oil out of fur is really hard work!” he exclaimed.

“You can say that again,” said Lisa.

Out of the blue James had an idea. “Hey, we could use a brush.” He cried. He rushed away to collect one from the purser. The brush made the job much easier and James and Lisa were having a much better time. Ke’yush was half done. But she still needed a lot more work.

James got a bucket and rinsed K’eyush down. This woke him up a bit and he broke away and went running around the deck. The children ran after him and it took a long while to catch him. James and Lisa were getting tired of all the grooming so they tied Ke’yush up and went down to the galley to get something to eat and drink.

When they returned the adults were still not about. They were having a meeting and trying to decide what to do with Charlie, the man that had been pulled from the oily sea. He was very ill. “I hope he will be all right,” said Lisa. They got back to work and before they knew it, they were done, finished and Ke’yush was squeaky clean again.

Lisa said, “Ke’yush is hungry again so we had better go fishing. They collected the tackle from the locker and dropped the long lines over the back of the boat and waited. After about ten minutes Lisa felt the first bite but the fish escaped.

A minute later James felt a bite. He quickly pulled hard on the line until the fish was hooked and then wound it in slowly. When he saw the fish he was amazed.

“It’s a whopper!” he cried.

“I wonder what kind of fish it is?” asked Lisa.

A passing seaman told them it was an Antarctic cod. After an hour they had enough fish to keep Ke’yush happy for quite a while. So they woke the sleeping bear and fed him.

Finally they were free to go and have their own tea. They were both very tired but also very excited about the events of the day. That night they talked for ages before Mrs. Benjamin came to tell them that the man who had been pulled from the oily water would be lifted off the boat by helicopter in the morning. Then she chased them off to bed.

The next day the children were up bright and early to check on the polar bear.

“We will have to go fishing again,” said Lisa.

“Yes,” replied James but just then Mr. Benjamin called them and led them to a cabin on the starboard side of the ship.

“I want you to meet Charlie Andrews,” said Mr. Lola, “but be careful he is very ill. He needs to be flown back to Casey Base by helicopter and then airlifted by plane to Hobart. He wants to thank you for helping to rescue him.”

The man in the room was still dirty and oily. He was a tired man who could barely speak. He didn’t seem to know where he was. Two of the ship’s crew had carefully removed Charlie’s dirty oily suit and this was lying in the corner of the room. In a chair in the opposite corner the doctor was busy writing notes to be sent with Charlie to hospital.

Soon enough the helicopter arrived and Charlie was loaded on to it on a stretcher. James and Lisa watched the huge helicopter lift into the sky and slowly disappear to become a tiny black dot in the hazy blue sky.

It was sad to see Charlie go even though they didn’t know him very well. Robert had told them he was a hard worker and a loyal crew member.

Lisa and James decided to go fishing over the side of the Sea Questor. They needed to catch lots of fish to keep K’eyush in food. When they tired of this task they played games for a while before Mrs. Lola came and asked them to help clean up the cabin here Charlie had spent his short time on the boat.

When they went in to the cabin it seemed bare and empty. The oil stained linen was still on the bed and Charlie’s oily survival suit still lay crumbled on the floor in the corner. Lisa quickly stripped the bed and took the sheets to the laundry to be washed. When she returned James was busy placing the survival suit in plastic garbage bags to be taken back to port to be disposed of safely.

As Lisa bent to help him she noticed a small plastic bag protruding from a pocket. She carefully lifted it out and was pleased to see that the bag was sealed tightly and this had kept the contents dry during the time Charlie had spent in the water. She showed it to James.

“What do you think it is?” he asked.

“Shall we open it and see?” replied Lisa.

“I think we should because it might be something important,” answered James.

Carefully the two children opened the package and took out a single sheet of photocopied paper. They spread it on the bed and looked at it carefully. It was some kind of rough hand drawn map but the children could not figure out what it was about.

Chapter 6: The Map

“What have you got there kids?” asked Mr. Benjamin walking into the cabin.

“We think it is a treasure map but we are not sure,” answered James.

“We found it in Charlie’s survival suit,” added Lisa excitedly. “Do you think Mr. Shandell might know?”

“Let’s ask him,” replied Mr. Benjamin quietly.

They found Robert stretched out in a chair on the deck. He was sitting next to Ke’yush who was tied to the railing to stop him from jumping overboard again. Robert’s eyes were closed but his right hand was scratching the bear cub behind his ears so Lisa decided that he could not be asleep.

“Robert;” she whispered and when he opened his eyes and saw them he smiled and sat up.

“Hi, kids,” he answered in a sleepy voice.

Quickly, the children told him about the map and where they had found it. When they were finished he was quiet for a long time before he looked up with a sad smile on his face.

“Poor old Charlie,” he said and then he told them a long story about Robert Falcon Scott’s disastrous attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole. He went on to explain that before the party had set off on their quest that three members had ventured out in the middle of an Antarctic winter in search of an emperor penguin colony. They had succeeded in finding it and in collecting a number of emperor penguin eggs. When they returned to camp some of the eggs were packed ready to be taken back to the British museum. The rest had been stashed near the camp to be used in emergencies. The map showed where the eggs were stored.

But how did Charlie get the map?” asked James excitedly.

“Well you see Charlie and I are both scientists who are interested in penguins, particularly emperor penguins,” Robert continued. “After Scott’s party failed to return from their expedition the rest of the party packed up the camp and returned home. They took with them the eggs for the British museum and these along with a few other boxes of things were placed in a back room and simply forgotten about. One day Charlie was examining them when he came across the map. He wanted to travel to Antarctica to find the other eggs so that he could compare their survival against that of the ones in the museum. He asked me to come along and help him,” Robert added softly.

“Well, we rescued the bear in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean and then when we arrived our boat collided with the ice berg and sunk. Now poor Charlie is too sick to finish his research and I am only a grateful visitor to your ship,” he finished sadly.

“What an incredible story,” Mr. Benjamin said.

“Dad, could we please follow the map and find the eggs for Charlie?” begged James.

“We can’t be sure they are still there,” said Mr. Benjamin shaking his head.

“But Charlie thought they might be, didn’t he?” said James turning to Robert eagerly.

“Well, he certainly thought it was worth a trip down here,” replied Robert.

“If we could find them it would mean that all his suffering would have been worth it,” added Lisa with a grin.

“Let me think about it,” replied Mr. Benjamin firmly. “After all we did promise to take you two ashore to spend a couple of nights on the ice, didn’t we?”

James and Lisa went up to the bridge to watch sunset. It only dipped just below the horizon before it started to come up again but the sky was a beautiful mass of colours and these were reflected in the icebergs that were slowly sliding past the side of the ship.

The next day they waited eagerly to see if Mr. Benjamin had made up his mind about their trip ashore onto the ice. At last he said slowly, “I have thought about our trip ashore. We will go but I can’t promise you we will be able to follow the map or find the eggs. They were left behind a long time ago and they have probably been found and eaten by skuas long before now.”

“But if we go near the place marked on the map we can have a look can’t we?” asked the children wriggling with excitement.

“I suppose so,” replied Mr. Lola reluctantly. “Now go and help sort and pack our gear for a couple of days on shore. Mr. Benjamin and I have some important arrangements to make as the trip can be very dangerous if you are not prepared. We leave at 5 a.m. in the morning.”

“Thank you,” they chorused.

The rest of the day consisted mainly of packing or the trip.

“We’ll need plenty of food, tents, ropes, a small generator, snow shoes, a compass and fuel,” James said.

“Don’t forget the map and plenty of chocolate,” added Lisa. “This will be so much fun.”

Chapter 7: Adventures on the Ice

The children arose early the next morning to see that the vehicles their parents had requested from Casey Base had arrived. They help stow all their gear and when they were ready they set off across the white wilderness. Robert was navigating by a compass and the children couldn’t wait until they reached the area contained in Charlie’s map.

After about two hours of slowly making their way forward at what seemed like a snail’s pace they discovered that K’eyush was following them. He was trotting along behind with a steady pace, sniffing the air as he went. When he finally tired they put him in the hagland with some of their supplies.

“I hope he doesn’t eat all our chocolate?” said Lisa.

“Don’t be silly, he only likes seals and fish,” replied James

After a while the temperature began to drop as the sun skimmed the horizon so they decided to set up camp. The adults insisted that the children were not to venture outside the tents on heir own as it was too dangerous and there was always a chance that they could become lost in a whiteout.

“What’s a whiteout?” asked Lisa.

“It is when the wind picks up the snow and swirls it around and you can’t see more than a metre in front of you,” replied Mr. Lola. “It’s sort of like a heavy fog except that it’s caused by snow and not moisture.”

The next morning the children awoke to a large cracking sound followed by a scream. They rushed outside to see a huge crevasse that had opened up suddenly and Robert was dangling over the edge hanging on by his fingertips. He had lost one of his gloves and his warm fingers were stuck fast to the ice.

“Don’t come too close,” he yelled. “The ground just opened up under my feet.”

The adults quickly got some ropes and hauled Robert to safety and bandaged his badly skinned and frozen fingers. James and Lisa were shaken by the accident and decided to stay close to the adults. The crevasse was very deep and Robert explained that it had been covered by a snow bridge so he had not noticed it but when he had trodden on it the snow gave away and he had fallen.

They decided to stay in camp that day so they could look after Robert’s snow bitten fingers. Mr. Benjamin explained that he might need to have them amputated when he returned home.

During the night a howling wind arose and a blizzard set in. It raged for three days and nights. They were all confined to their tents as it was impossible to stand up outside, the wind was blowing so hard and the snow was swirling around thickly.

On the fourth morning the children awoke to the sound of silence. The wind had dropped and the snow had settled again. The children had to dig their way out of the tent as the snow had piled up against the door. K’eyush had slept most of the time and the children were worried that he was sick but Robert explained that he was probably just confused because back in his homeland of Alaska it would be winter and time for him to be hibernating. So they put him in the hagland and left him to sleep.

“At least he is not hungry all the time,” said Lisa thankfully.

They packed up the camp, stowed all their gear and set off once more following some invisible path. They passed a huge sustrugi and Mr. Benjamin explained that they were formed wherever there is unevenness in the snow. They are like sand dunes only made of snow that has been piled up by the wind. They can be so soft that even a man can sink into them or so hard that they can rip the undercarriage from a plane or helicopter attempting to land on them.

They had to move carefully in that area with the adults going first and testing the ground at every step to see if it would hold their weight. Once they got the hagland and its trailer bogged and had to dig it out. After what seemed a lifetime they started to recognise some of the shapes marked on Charlie’s map. They made camp once more.

The next morning the children ran around madly digging holes looking for the eggs. They soon tired of this and they decided that they were never going to find them. The adults laughed at them and sat down and carefully made some calculations and set out once again to start digging. But at last even they gave up scratching their heads.

“I told you,” said Mr. Benjamin tiredly. “It was useless trying to find them after all this time. We will need to return to the ship tomorrow.”

That night the children went sadly to bed feeling they had failed in their mission to find the eggs for Charlie.

“Don’t worry,” Robert told them, “You have saved Charlie, K’eyush and me and you have tried hard to make Charlie’s dreams come true.”

The next morning they were busy packing up when Lisa noticed K’eyush nosing around near one of the holes they had dug. Suddenly she started scratching furiously at the snow. The children went to investigate and found a broken egg. James quickly pulled the bear away while Lisa carefully scraped the snow away. She let out a cry of surprise and held up a large egg. It had a pointed top and a round base that was yellow.

The adults came running to see what they had found. Robert took the egg carefully in his bandaged hands. “It’s definitely an Emperor penguin egg,” he exclaimed. Although they dug carefully around in the snow they only found broken shells. They had discovered the only complete egg to survive.

“Awesome,” said Mr. Benjamin, “now we only have to get it back to the boat.”

They packed it carefully and set out on the return journey. The weather was good and they made good time by following the markers they had left in the snow to mark the track. The only incident was when a large leopard seal reared up out of a crack in the pack ice and tried to grab Mr. Lola as he stepped over the crack. K’eyush quickly grabbed the seal and dragged it out of the water. He killed it and began to devour it.

“It tastes better to him than all that fish you have been feeding him,” laughed Robert. When they reached the boat they had a wonderful tale to tell the captain over their tea.

Chapter 8: Home at Last

On the way back from Antarctica it was rough and both the children suffered seasickness. It was hard to keep up with the demand of K’eyush’s eating habits.

The children were excited about the egg and they began to wonder if modern science could unfreeze the egg and bring the chick inside back to life. James decided to ask his dad if it was possible.

“Dad do you think that one day the penguin egg could hatch?”

“Maybe son, but I don’t think so,” he replied.

“Well I believe it will,” said James wistfully.

The next day was hard. James and Lisa had no luck caching fish so they had to let K’eyush go without food.

After a long journey they finally reached Hobart. The children were glad to be back on dry land. They couldn’t wait to visit Charlie and tell him about the egg and their adventures.

The parents decided to talk to the children about what to do with K’eyush. James suggested they should send him to a zoo.

“That’s certainly an option,” replied Mr. Lola.

“We could send K’eyush to Sea World,” said Lisa.

“Oh! What a great idea,” said Mr. Benjamin, “I’ll make some enquires.”

K’eyush was sent to Sea World and a couple of months later the children received a letter to say that he had settled in well and was in tremendous condition and none the worst for his extraordinary adventures.

Robert Shandell and Charlie Andrews returned home to their relieved families. They returned to the university and continued with their research. But they both vowed never to venture to Antarctica again.

When the children returned to school they bragged about their adventures. The other children thought they were lucky not having to go to school for two whole months. The teacher suggested that they should do a project to share with the rest of the school.

“We already have,” said Lisa. “We have kept a diary, made a power point presentation and a movie.”

As they were walking home that night they talked about how good it was to be back in Hobart.

“But I do miss being on the boat,” said James.

“I miss K’eyush,” replied Lisa, “But not the cold.”

The End

Ke’yush is an Inuit word meaning bear cub.

Dedication

We would like to thank all the people who made this story possible. In particular we are most grateful to Mr. Andy Baird of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery for allowing us to be part of the Ice E Mystery project and for making our time at the Island to Ice exhibition so informative and enjoyable.

We also wish to thank most sincerely Mr. Joel Pedro of the University of Tasmania, for allowing us to share his Antarctic Adventures, the wonderful science experiments and the numerous emails from his latest visit to the frozen continent.

Deloraine Primary School 2008 Class 4/5H

Samuel Alderson

Karley Beer

Rye Bissett – Proudfoot

Megan Bott

Nathan Claridge

Liam Donohue

Milion Donovan

Lliam Drury

Emily Eastley

Matthew Griffen

Danieka How

Tara Howe

Liam Kearns

Cameron Marett

Patrick O’Shea

Corey Parker

Brooke Robertson

Declan Schnoor

Holly Scott

Sophie Squires

Emma Taylor

Joel Taylor

The fire crackled in the mid-night sky, the smell of fish wafted in the air, distant sounds of unknown animals came and went. A sleek beautiful dog was sitting patiently waiting for its meal. Its eyes glowed brightly. The dog’s fur was thick and warm. Beside the dog was a man wearing warm clothes, his hood was down and you could see his stern mouth. His eyes were deep blue and his hair was standing on end. Snow was throughout his hair, reason being, the two had just walked in the cold blizzard searching for shelter, but failed to find much.

They found only a place to sit for the night, before they had to move on. It was near a lake which had a thick sheet of ice covering the fresh water, trees were stripped bare, they had no leaves, no flowers, and there was no sign of life to suggest it was going to bloom at all. The place looked like a freezer rather than a part of Mother Nature. The man made a hole with the tools that he was carrying and waited for the fish to bite the bait. Food was scarce because the two had travelled longer than they expected. Soon he had caught two small fish, which was enough to feed them.

The man stood up and trudged in the deep snow over to his bag, which had been dumped carelessly on the icy ground. He was tired and hungry. He got out two wooden bowls and placed it on the rocky surface that was free of snow and then walked over to the fire, seeing if the fish was cooked. It was, he smiled happily and took the fish off the hot fire and placed one in each bowl.

“Your food is cooked Max!” the man called out to the dog with excitement. Max’s furry ears lifted and he stood slowly up onto his strong four legs. He bounded to his master and lowered his head to eat. Soon there were sounds of bones being crushed. The man picked up his food delicately and bit into the cooked fish.

“At least we found a great place to sit and eat!” exclaimed the man. Max looked up and barked. The man stared at Max, licking his lips.

“Like it, huh? Well I wish that I had caught more fish, then we would both have a full stomach,” muttered the man. The dog lowered his head and stumbled back to his spot.

“I’m sorry,” mumbled the man. “But don’t worry, we’ll get back home soon!” added the man, trying to sound happy. Max just ignored him and looked into the night sky. The man wasn’t happy either and trying to change the mood of Max was nearly impossible. He sighed deeply and looked up at the dark, mysterious sky as stars were appearing.

“Just imagine what is happening at the other side of the world!” exclaimed the man. Max was still ignoring him. Max looked at the man, Max knew that he was stubborn, but he didn’t want to admit it to himself.

“Why even bother you won’t even listen to me?!” sneered the man, unhappy about Max’s stubborn attitude. Max lowered his head and closed his eyes.

“You better not fall asleep on me on purpose!” complained the man. Max didn’t stir. Max was asleep just as the man had thought. 

The man knew that they wouldn’t leave until the morning came out to warm them. He sighed deeply and unpacked his bag, he unrolled his sleeping bag. It was black and had a print of a magnificent blue dragon. He sat down on top and opened his favourite book. It was about a man named Leo who was on an adventure to search for the Emperor Penguin. Soon sleep started to take over and his eyes started to droop. The man made up his mind and put his book away, then went to sleep, hoping he would survive the cold, threatening to kill Max and him.

The man awoke the next morning “What, where am I?” he questioned, “Max, where are you?”

Max was gone.

The man quickly got up, got ready and went searching for Max. In the distance the man could see a rough figure of a moving object.

 “Max is that you?” the man asked hopefully.

“No it isn’t” the voice replied as the figure got closer and closer, “I’m definitely not a Max!”

Finally the man could see the person clearly. It was a lovely young lady.

She was around the age of 22. The young lady had dark blue eyes, short curly light brown hair and she looked short and skinny. She was wearing a pair of fluffy white boots, a big puffy blue snow suit, blue goggles and a blue beanie with a pompom on top. She had an annoyed expression, because she was wet and cold. 

“What’s your name, stranger?” the lady inquired “Mine is Annabelle Sanderson.”

“My name is Dale Fritzaberg, and I have lost my dog, can you help me find him please Annabelle?”

“Sure and you can call me Anna.”

For the first time in a long while Dale looked around and hoped to see his beautiful dog, but instead saw a large rock sticking out of the landscape in the shape of Abraham Lincoln’s hat.

So Anna and Dale set off to find Max. After a while Anna asked Dale if he would go to Antarctica with her, Dale stopped, it was a bit of a shock to him because he had only known her for 4 hours and 47 minutes. Anna had asked Dale to go with him because she needed someone to go with her to research the wildlife in Antarctica. “Ummmmmmmmm” Dale said absent mindedly.   

So they both searched on, but still they couldn’t find Max. 

Finally, after what seemed like hours, they found him lying in the cold, wet snow.  His eyes were closed shut, and did not open as they approached. 

Dale knelt beside Max, and grabbed his cold, damp fur and began to shake him, but Max’s eyes did not open.  Dale continued to try and get Max to open his eyes, but had no luck.  Weariness from the past few days set upon them and reality set in.  The cold had killed his dog. 

Anna did not know what to say or do.  They both sat there, looking at the lifeless dog, still hoping he would show some sign of life. 

One moment Max was lying there and in the next moment he finally opened his eyes.

 “Max!” Dale whispered in disbelief, “You made it.  You’re alive!”  Dale had never been so relieved in his entire life.  Anna shared his emotions.

After the scare they had both experienced, the offer from Anna to travel to the other side of the globe sounded like a welcomed change.  Dale decided right then that as long as Max could make the trip to Antarctica, he would go too.

The two trudged back to their camp site and both decided that their appetites had now returned. Anna let a fishing line into the water to find some food, while Dale happily played with Max. When a small meal had been prepared the three sat down to satisfy their hunger.

 “I know it’s not the best time to ask, but I really need the answer today. Do you want to go to Antarctica with me?” Anna questioned.

 “Okay, Anna. I’ll go with you,” Dale said, “as long as we can bring Max with us.”

Before Dale knew it Anna had started packing up the empty bowls and putting them messily in her back pack.

“We’ll head off in the morning to the radio station to call in an aeroplane,” Anna said, whilst unrolling her pink polka-dotted sleeping bag.

The night was cold and unforgiving, but now Dale had something else to think about. What would they do? Who else might come? What animal did Anna want to research?

All these questions were buzzing around in his head like a shaken up wasp in a lolly jar.

The next morning Dale, Anna and Max set off to the radio station, which was only a mile or two away from where they had stayed the night before.

Inside was warm against their cold skin. Behind a desk was a man who looked quite old and had a long scar from his cheek to his jaw.

“How may I help you?” asked the man.

“Hello. I’m Annabelle Sanderson and this is my partner Dale Fritzaberg. We would like a standard plane to take us to Australia,” Anna said like she did this everyday.

“AUSTRALIA?!?!?!?!?!?” Dale said, shocked. “Why on earth would we go there?”

“Because one, it’s close to Antarctica and two, we come from there,” Anna explained.

“I don’t come from Australia,” Dale yelled. “I come from New Zealand.”

The man was sitting impatiently for them to make a decision.

Finally they decided Tasmania was a good option.

“Two tickets and an animal pass to Tassie, please,” Anna asked politely.

“Finally. Here you go ma’am. Enjoy your flight. It will be here in 6- 8 hours. Please sign in with passports and pass through customs at least 2 hours before departure. Thank you for flying Arctic International Airlines, where service always comes with a smile. By the way, you get a 10% discount at the café if you buy a medium coffee and a bagel,” the man said with absolutely no enthusiasm at all.

Dale, Anna and Max sat at the café for two hours eating cake, drinking coffee, talking about Antarctica and what they needed to buy in Tasmania.

Two hours before departure they went to get their passports checked. It was then time for Anna and Dale to say goodbye to Max for a short while. Max was taken and placed in an animal transport cage and would reunite with Dale and Anna upon arrival in Antarctica. That took about forty-five minutes and they still had to go through customs. That took about an hour and by that time they were ready to board the plane.

The plane was small and apart from one other lady, Dale and Anna were the only passengers. The lady was going to Tasmania as well so there were only petrol stops along the way. The stewardess served pretzels and water which was perfect for Anna because she was sick of coffee. Dale wouldn’t eat any more because he was tired enough to sleep for a week.

Their first stop was in China, they had to switch to a bigger flight to get to Tasmania.

Dale and Anna both slept on the way from China to Tasmania. At 7:00pm the plane landed in Hobart and Anna had to usher a taxi to take them to a hotel.

The Welcome Inn was alright and there were two single beds, so that worked out fine. The two had to get ready and pack all the food in one day, because they had a flight that night.

First they bought big, fluffy coats and gloves and all the clothing they needed. Next Anna wanted to get a thicker sleeping bag and some blankets.

Finally they bought food including 7 buckets of chocolate!

“At this rate we have so much stuff the ice will crack under us!” Dale remarked.

At 9:00pm they went to the airport to check if they could get snow sled hire down there. After that they boarded the plane to Antarctica.

The flight was only 4 hours long, so Dale read the book that he hadn’t read in so long. Anna was trying to flirt her way into getting more peanuts from the flight attendant. After 4 hours of reading and failure, the plane landed.

The plane landed right next to the transport stations, so they could get to the vehicles quicker. The lady in the plane gave them a complementary bag of pretzels and a juice box, they were not hungry so they saved them in a box for later. After they disembarked from the plane Dale, Anna and Max quickly walked to their vehicle. The ride was long and boring.  Finally they got to the hut they called home.

The first thing they did was unpack all the food into the cupboards provided. Then they set up their beds and put some towels down for Max. Anna wanted to get started on her project immediately, but she would have to wait till morning because Dale was tired and Max was being lazy.

After a restless night, Anna had a shower and got changed into her fluffy snow suit.

Dale slopped out of bed and had some buttered toast with honey and a cup of tea.

At 8am they went for a walk in the chilly morning air. They saw two Adelie Penguins and a Fur Seal on the way to the research area. Anna and Dale were happy for Max to wander and explore the terrain because Dale had assured Anna that Max wasn’t a threat to any animals.

 At the research area, Anna and Dale were reading books when they realised that they had better get back to their hut. When they got to the hut they gazed around for Max, but he was nowhere to be seen. Anna and Dale stumbled outside. They then called out for Max, but he did not appear. They were worried about Max because he could have frozen or fallen in a crevasse.

When Max appeared two hours later he was cold and wet.  They all went to bed for another long night.

In the morning they staggered out of their beds, they had sugar on Weet- Bix. Dale and Anna got ready for another exciting day. They decided to bring Max with them, so he wouldn’t run off again. Once they got to the research area they decided they would go on the wireless internet to research Adelie Penguins as this was the species they were researching.

They found out that Adelie Penguins eat Krill at the waters edge; they also found out that they are scared of Skuas and Leopard seals. They live along the entire Antarctic coast and nearby islands.

After they found a little information they decided to go out and search for Adelie Penguins. Anna and Dale were so engrossed in their research that they didn’t notice that Max had scuttled off once again.

“We shouldn’t go looking for him, because he came back yesterday” said Anna.

 Dale and Anna went back to the research area so they could continue with their research. The Adelie Penguins were diving into the water to get Krill for their dinner, they were also huddling together. Anna found them so remarkable that she wanted to go and touch them, but she couldn’t because they would defend themselves and their young.

At 4.30pm they decided that they would go back to the hut. On the way they saw two Leopard Seals, they were very interesting so they decided to stop and watch them for a little while.

Anna told Dale a bit about them. She said they have a 10cm layer of fat and they eat Krill, Squid, Fish and Penguins.

The Leopard Seals were lounging around being lazy. They were waving their fins around, whilst swallowing fish. The seals had ink on them from where they had been eating squid earlier. They did not look to be in danger of the killer whales at that stage because they were on the ice eating fish. Anna and Dale also saw a Wandering Albatross eating fish. The Wandering Albatross would soon travel to a warmer place to migrate. Anna and Dale both knew that they were the biggest of all Albatross’s and have a wing span of 3 – 4 metres.

It was 5:30pm and they thought that they had better go to the hut before dark. On the way back, Anna said she would tell Dale about some of the animals she was familiar about.

She talked about the Patagonian Toothfish. They eat squid, crustations, smaller toothfish, small fish and Krill. Scientists tell how old they are by counting their rings on their teeth. The maximum length is 2.2 metres and it can weigh up to 120 kilos. Its threats are killer whales. The Patagonian Toothfish hibernates because it provides seasonal energetic benefits. The Patagonian Toothfish is part of the Antarctic cod family.

They were soon at the hut where they made a small fire to cook a beef stew for dinner. The stew was soon ready, Dale put three bowls on the table and put some stew in them. After their dinner they had a block of chocolate each. They put a pot on the stove to make hot chocolate. Anna, Dale and Max had an early night for a big day which was to follow.

The next day Anna and Dale got ready to go to the research area, they left the hut at 9.34am. They decided to leave Max tethered to his lead for the day. On the way, Anna told Dale about the Snow Petrel.

The Snow Petrel are pure white with grey feet, they also have black eyes and a black beak. Snow Petrels lay one egg and they sit on it for 41 to 49 days. Snow Petrels eat Squid, Fish, Krill and Patagonian Toothfish.

Anna and Dale then saw a school of deceased Krill. They examined the Krill and took a sample. Dale then told Anna they had better get back to the hut.

When they had returned, Dale lit a small fire and cooked some under-sized fish. Anna went to check on Max but found that he had escaped from his lead. She was not concerned because Anna knew that Max would return when he was ready.

When the fish was ready, Anna got out two large bowls. Dale and Anna sat and ate their fish in complete silence, soon there was a scratch at the door, Dale got up to inspect.

He slowly opened the door and saw a small dark figure in front of him. As soon as his eyes got used to the Antarctic light, he figured out that it was Max.

Max trotted inside of the hut and sat down quietly. Anna put a small bowl of fish on the floor for him, but he didn’t have one nibble.

“Why hasn’t he eaten his food?” questioned Anna. “Maybe we will have to find out,” replied Dale.

The next morning Dale and Anna with a sigh walked to the Research Station, on the way they bumped into another researcher, he was holding a dead penguin.

“What happened?” asked Anna in shock; dread crawled from the pit of their stomachs to their throats, it was certain that the penguin was dead, Dale sighed and said in a convincing tone,

“Maybe it’s just part of mother nature.”

“I’m sure it is,” said the man. He left, leaving Anna and Dale in the cold. Anna walked off sadly; Dale followed looking strong, but inside his heart was aching with emotions.

“You seem strong,” Anna murmured to Dale.

“Huh … well we can’t change what just happened, so it’s better to move on,” Dale explained.

“Come on, lets go!” said Anna, lightening up as she ran ahead, Dale followed with a fake smile on his face.

They arrived to the Research Station and saw the man again.

“Hey, have you heard the good news?” queried the man.

“What good news?” asked Anna.

“A baby Adelie Penguin is being born!”

“Cool!” said Anna and Dale.

They ran off to the colony, but stayed 100 metres away from them. Holding their binoculars they crouched down in the freezing snow and focussed on the hatching egg.

Ever so slowly the egg started the crack. The crack lines were so tiny, but grew larger by the second. Soon a beak popped out of the egg and then the head, the mother came to the chick’s side, then half of his body appeared out of the tiny egg.

“It’s so cute!” said Anna.

“Yeah,” agreed Dale.

“It’s getting late and cold, we better head back to camp, I feel like a hot chocolate with diminutive marshmallows,” said Dale happily. Anna finally agreed with Dale for once.

Soon they trudged back to the camp with oversized grins on their faces. Anna whipped up two hot chocolates with diminutive marshmallows. Max was moaning back to his rug with an empty stomach.

Once Dale and Anna had finished their hot chocolate, they went to bed in their new sleeping bags. Dale woke up hearing a creak, which sounded like a door opening, he thought he was imagining things, so he went back to sleep.

In the morning Dale and Anna noticed that Max was missing, Dale suggested that he had just gone for a walk. Dale and Anna went for another walk, but this time to go find Max.

Anna was fed up with looking for the lost Husky, because her time should have been spent researching the Adelie Penguins. While they were walking they found three Adelie Penguins with teeth marks around their necks, there were feathers everywhere. A huge crack was in the ice near the deserted penguins.

“Maybe it was a Leopard Seal, because I heard that they can crack through the ice and grab penguins by the neck,” explained Dale.

“Or a Killer Whale,” said Anna.

“Yeah right, how could they even get onto the ice? I mean, they can’t just jump out of the sea and land in an area like this!” exclaimed Dale.

“Well did you ever consider that I was day dreaming?” asked Anna

“Oh … no, well let’s get back to the hut, I’m sure Max will come back,” said Dale.

They walked back, but something was nagging Dale in the back of his mind, why would a Leopard Seal not eat his prey?

“I think you should have a buzz cut!” said Anna, upon returning to the hut.

“Great,” said Dale, not wanting anything to do with it.

Anna was giving the whinging Dale a buzz cut, when suddenly they both heard a whine at the door. Dale, sick of his haircut, raced to the door. As he opened it a large familiar dog bowled the door fully open and trekked snow through the hut into his corner.

“Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh,” screamed Anna. “What’s in your mouth?” growled Dale.

Max innocently spat out a little bit of blood and quite a few feathers. Dale and Anna were standing shocked.

“Are they p…p…penguin feathers?!?!” Anna hesitated to say.

Anna and Dale studied the blood and feathers for 7 hours and finally they discovered that the blood and feathers belonged to Adelie Penguins. Dale and Anna were surprised to find that Max was the cause of the penguin’s deaths.

“Should we own up to quarantine?” Dale asked.

“Well maybe Max isn’t the murderer?” Anna said. “The penguin could have died and Max could have been hungry.”

The next day Dale and Anna stayed in the hut and refused to let Max out. It didn’t work very well because Max needed to go to the toilet and Anna demanded that Dale let him out.  To Dales unhappiness, Anna opened the door for Max to do his business, all the while, Max was firmly tied to his leash. 

Later that afternoon, while Dale and Anna were trekking once again to the Research Station, they came upon more dead penguins, but without bite marks.

“What’s going on here?” questioned Anna.

“I don’t know,” replied Dale, “Max can’t have done this because he is on the lead.”

“Lets run some tests,” Anna said, as she walked over to pick up a dead penguin.

They took blood samples, feathers and some skin for diagnosing. It took a couple of hours for them to get a result, but they found results of a disease that could only be carried by a dog. Anna gasped.

“It can’t have been Max,” Dale said.

 Anna walked over to the phone.

“What are you doing?!?” asked Dale.

“Calling quarantine,” Anna shouted from across the room.

“But Max would have to go and so would I, I can’t leave you alone,” cried Dale, “Then you would have no partner to help you with your research, Anna.”

“But what option do we have?” explained Anna.

Dale was pondering the question about calling quarantine or not. If they did, Dale and Anna would get a huge fine. If they didn’t call quarantine the Adelie Penguins would die out.

“Fine then,” said Dale grumpily.

“I will go with you so I’m not alone down here, Dale,” said Anna. 

  The following day Dale, Anna and Max packed up their bags and walked over to the little landing station to tell the flight manager about Max being the cause of the Adelie Penguins dying.

“Hi, um, Fred,” said Dale, looking at the flight managers name tag.

“We have a problem with quarantine,” said Anna. “Please may we be able to get two tickets and an animal pass back to Tasmania?” Dale and Anna questioned together. Max just barked.

Dale was petting Max on the head as he stared out the window waiting for their flight to arrive.  The small waiting room was deserted.  Dale said to Anna,

“Why are you coming back to Alaska with us?” 

Anna replied, “Because I don’t want to be alone while I’m doing research.”

“Oh,” Dale said and continued looking out the window, bummed that Anna’s research had to be cut short on the account of Max.

Eventually their plane arrived.  Anna and Dale boarded the plane, found their seats and almost immediately fell asleep.  The events of the last few days had finally caught up with them.  They both woke up as the plane landed in Tasmania. 

Inside, Dale and Anna approached the nearest ticket agent. 

“We’re looking for two tickets to Alaska and our dog will be travelling with us.  We’d like to leave as soon as possible.” 

“Hmm,” the ticket agent responded, “I’ll see what I can find.” 

“You’re in luck,” replied the agent, after taking what seemed like forever to complete his search, “We have space available on the next flight.  It leaves in 5 hours.” 

“We’ll take it,” Dale and Anna responded in unison.

“Here are your tickets.  You’re flight leaves from gate C7.  You can check your dog in over at the airline counter over there.”

“Thank you,” replied both Anna and Dale in unison.

“You’re welcome.  Enjoy your flight,” responded the attendant.

Anna and Dale went to the airline counter and checked Max in.  Once they had the okay from security, Dale and Anna gathered their things. 

“See you in Alaska, Max,” Dale said as the security guard moved Max’s kennel.  Once Max was out of sight, Dale and Anna made their way through security and found gate C7.

“This is it.  Only two and a half hours to go until boarding,” Dale commented to Anna.  “It’s still hard to believe we’re leaving so soon,” Anna responded. 

“I agree,” Dale said softly and stared off into the distance.  Anna did not respond.  It seemed as though both were thinking about what would happen next.

“Have you given any thought to what you’ll do once you get back to Alaska?” Dale asked.

“A little bit, I was thinking about heading to the coast and studying the wildlife that dwell there.  A friend of mine, a professor from UAA, is studying the seal population.  I think it sounds interesting, she can use the help, so I thought I’d check it out,” Anna responded. 

Before Dale could respond, two adults and a small boy approached.  The man asked,

“Mind if we sit down?” 

Dale and Anna hadn’t noticed how crowded the terminal had gotten. 

“Not at all,” responded Anna. 

They all sat down. 

“Where are you going?” asked Dale. 

 “Alaska, you?” questioned the woman.

“We are too,” said Anna, “By the way my name is Anna and this is Dale.” 

“We’re the Smiths.  I’m Charles, this is my wife, Janet and son, Bruce,” said the man. 

“Hey, are you the people from the newspaper?” asked Bruce.  Anna and Dale exchanged a look, “Newspaper?” asked Dale. 

“Yeah, I was reading an article in the newspaper before we came to the airport.  It was about penguin research in Antarctica and the sickness outbreak among penguins.  They think the sickness was caused by a dog.” 

“I guess that would be us and our dog, Max, then.  We didn’t know there was a story,” replied Dale. 

Just then, the airline agent came on the loudspeaker and announced pre-boarding for all passengers.

“Well it was nice meeting you, but we’ve got to board.  They upgraded us to first class and we want to make the most of it” Charles said. 

“See you in Alaska” responded Dale. 

The trip went by quickly, despite the cramped quarters and long flight. 

Anna and Dale had to wait a long time to get off the plane.  The last row was no place to sit if you had very little time between flights.  Lucky for them, Anchorage was their last stop.  They proceeded to baggage claim to collect their luggage.  On the plane Dale had decided to go with Anna to the coast and help the professor do research.  All they needed to do was get their luggage, Max, and be on their way, but Max never showed up.

“Huh,” Dale said,  “It must be taking them awhile to unload the luggage.” 

All of the other passengers were gone and still Max was nowhere to be found. Dale and Anna ventured to the ticket counter. 

“Hi, how may I help you?” asked the agent. 

“My name is Dale.  I’m missing my dog.  He was supposed to be on the flight with us.”  “Hmm, according to our records there was only one dog on the flight, and I saw a family outside with it just a minute ago,” replied the ticket lady. 

Just then, Anna spotted the Smith’s through the airport’s windows. 

She gasped.

The Smiths’ were pushing an airport cart and on that cart was a kennel.  A kennel that looked exactly like Max’s! 

“How dare they!” shouted Dale, as he and Anna ran through the doors to catch them.

“Stop!  Stop!  You have my dog!” hollered Dale. 

At the sound of Dale’s voice, Max barked and the Smiths’ turned around. 

“This is your dog?” questioned Mr. Smith, sounding relieved. 

“Yes, so what are you doing with him?” asked Dale sternly.  The tone of Dale’s voice made the man stammer,

“Oh…I…I….saw this dog running loose.  I called for him and he came running.  We were just on our way to bring him back inside.  I thought someone would be looking for him,” replied Charles. 

“Phew!” Dale and Anna sighed, “We thought we had lost him.” 

“Nope, here he is.  I guess he just really needed to get outside and go to the bathroom after such a long flight” said Bruce.

Everyone laughed. 

Dale and Anna thanked the Smith’s.  Then, they went back into the airport and collected their things.  They headed to the parking lot, packed up their car and began their trip to the coast, but that’s another story!

THE END

The Mercury - The Voice of Tasmania - Letters to the Editor - November 28

Dear Editor;

We are writing to complain about the polar bears being moved to Antarctica. This is not a good idea because they will eat all the penguins since they are meat eaters. They are the smartest hunters in the world and they are the biggest meat eaters in the world. The polar bears will not like the six month cold period. They will not like the icy cold winds blowing on them. In Antarctica it can get as cold as -129F. It will be way too cold for the polar bears. Also, polar bears will die from eating penguins because they have never eaten them before. They could spread disease in Antarctica. Please stop this project immediately. (name on file)

Kavik City News              December 1

Police Blotter

Locals report unusual activity. It appears that strangers have been scouting out polar bear dens. Reports of suspicious persons asking questions of villagers and buying provisions at the general store are surfacing. Sam Bowers mentioned that folks in yesterday were buying up all his vegetable oil. He overheard them talking about global warming and polar bears becoming extinct. He thought they said they were from a place called Kyoto Protocol.

Freeze! Fact Number One

Polar bears in Alaska are facing a serious threat because of the retreating sea ice. Polar bears use the ice to hunt seals, their main prey. Their favorite food is the ringed seal. In 2007, there was a major loss of sea ice. 2008 was a close second. Polar bears have to ride the ice too far North or stay on land where they would need to out compete grizzly bears. Some scientists predict that polar bears will be gone from Alaska by 2050 or sooner. Alaskan polar bears are now endangered.

Freeze! Fact Number Two

Sam thought Kyoto Protocol was a place down south. Fortunately, as word spread through the village, his nephew’s son, Issac, overheard the elders. Issac’s fourth grade class at Kavik Elementary School had just been reading about polar bears and global warming in their Scholastic News. He told them that the Kyoto Protocol was an agreement by many countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in an attempt to reduce global warming. Global warming is affecting the ice that the polar bears depend on.

Kavik City News            December 2

POLAR BEAR CUB MISSING

Foul play suspected. In a possible case of bear napping, a young male polar bear was reported missing by two Fish and Wildlife biologists, Ken White and Barry McNabb, during a routine check on the general health of the mother.

With no predators in the area and no disturbance noted at the den site, the cub was apparently abducted from the den 20 miles from Kavik.

Villagers are mystified. “We respect the Nanook. None of our people would take a cub from the den,” said elder Peter Tokpok. With the whiteout conditions and fierce wind, tracks may have been covered quickly. Villagers set out on snowmachines to check out the den as word spread quickly through the village.

Officers White and McNabb will be interviewing locals for possible leads. Alerts are being issued.

Freeze! Fact Number Three

Polar bears are born in snow dens in November or December and they stay in the den where their mother feeds them until March or April. Then they stay with their mother to learn how to hunt until they are 2 to 3 years old. There are usually two cubs in a litter but sometimes there are three. The female polar bear only has a litter of cubs every three years.

December 2
Investigative Crime Report
Alaska Wildlife Troopers
Report violations 1-800-978-0155

Our motto: Help curb unlawful fishing and hunting in Alaska - Promote fish and game protection

Troopers at 10:37 am received a report of a missing polar bear cub from a den 20 miles W of Kavik.  Investigation is ongoing.

The missing cub was from the Beaufort Sea bear stock. Wildlife troopers from Fairbanks received a report of the illegal polar bear abduction on December 1 and visited the village a few days later to investigate.

“We can’t tell for sure if this is the only cub missing,” said Lt. Ron Smith, commander. “We’re concerned about illegal hunting, killing, or capturing of any protected species. We ask that anybody with knowledge of this crime talk with us or call our 800 number to report any violations.”

“This kind of stuff will not be tolerated,” Kavik mayor Tom Ootuk told the Fairbanks News-Miner. “We still live a subsistence way of life and we need to make sure it’s protected. We were taught to respect our animals. We don’t like it when something like this happens.”

Freeze! Fact Number Four

The Beaufort Sea bear population is one of two in Alaska. The other stock, the Bering-Chukchi bears on the Northwest coast, are shared with Russia.

Kavik City News         December 4

LOCAL MUSHER  FINDS CLUE TO MISSING POLAR BEAR
Pete Waloo was checking his trapline yesterday afternoon when his dogs caught a strange scent. “They just started howling and pulling real hard toward a low rise in the distance,” Pete reported. He said they heard a low rumble and what looked like an alien spacecraft was hovering over them. “It was low light but I could see real good. This thing was like a semi with wings,” according to Waloo. (INSERT picture t_1- jet/truck in air)

They mushed up over the rise and saw an area the size of the city basketball court where the snow had been trampled. Then Waloo said his lead dog, Akluk, got his nose down and started sniffing. Buried in the snow, Akluk uncovered a stained book “Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi”  that had a travel log tucked inside and a strange jar labeled Vegemite. Waloo turned both items over to the Troopers. (INSERT picture – vegemite)

Lt. Smith asked the Kavik City News to reprint the travel log and requested that anyone with additional information about a group known as the QSTSC or their Alaskan associates contact the troopers at 800-978-0155. The log follows:

Arctic Mission Day 1
QSTSC … Right now we’re in Geelong preparing for a week-long trip. Leyton has loaded the water and food and Keenan checks the lines, plugs, power and fuel. The fire extinguisher is charged and our computers are ready to send messages if something should go wrong. We have made space to fit the polar bears in the vehicle. It’s time to take off! (INSERT picture u_1- semi w/sun)

Rocky flicks the switches to start the jets and the truck goes forward and begins speeding up. We get up to 1,000 km/hr and suddenly we’re in the air. We fly North trying to stay in the smooth jet stream but the trip is bumpy. Playing “Bop It” helps pass the time on this long trip. The views are spectacular from the jet truck. Leyton tells us to look out the window and we see really cool yellow shooting stars. We speed through blizzards but then Rocky calls out that the sun has gone down and we’re running low on fuel. Since we have biodiesel power as well as the solar cells, we’ll have to land and refuel. We land in Paris and wait for the sun while fueling up. We have just enough time to visit the Eiffel tower before leaving again.

Arctic Mission Day 2
We’re coming in to land on the ice. We come down smoothly and safely and are lucky enough to see our very first polar bear. (INSERT picture z_1 – polar bears on ice) Tia, Zara, Myah, Keenan, and Leyton are hopping out of the jet when they hear cracking. The ice is breaking and we are falling through! The truck is too heavy!

But we’re saved when a bowhead whale flicks us back onto the ice with his strong head. We give him some of our krill. He likes it and stays close by.

Freeze! Fact – bowhead whales

We set up camp and set off for the nearest village to get more biofuel for the jet-truck. We find a village called Kavik and talk with Sam at the local store where we buy all the vegetable oil for reserve fuel on the trip to Antarctica.

Arctic Mission Day 3
We spot our second polar bear! It’s walking on the ice floes. “How do we catch a polar bear?” Leyton wonders. Myah suggests a gigantic net that shoots out of a gun we’ve used to catch albatross. Keenan thinks it might be time to ask Alaskan kids for help. We drive carefully across the ice and head south to find our friends. Then we hear a huge crack, crack, crack and look up to see a big chunk of ice break off becoming a new iceberg. Luckily we’re up to take-off speed and the truck transforms into a jet as we lift into the air.

Arctic Mission Day 4
We’re back at our base camp with our Fairbanks friends. Luckily our bowhead whale is still friendly and helping hold the jet truck up. But then it starts to swim away! “Where’s it going?” cried Myah. As we looked closer, we noticed it was swimming to the thicker ice. When it arrived at the thick ice, it swam all the way back to us and looked as though it was asking us to drive onto its back so we did. It was great fun. When we arrived, we thanked the whale and set off to capture some polar bears.

Arctic Mission Day 5
Well this is harder than we thought. Everything just seemed to go wrong when Tia was in charge of the net. Luckily our Fairbanks friends were along because when they took over, we captured our first polar bear! It was a cub so we practiced on a smaller bear and got pretty good at it. Then we put the bears on the lift one at a time and fit as many as we could in the jet. But we realized it was going to be too heavy to take off!

“What are we going to do?” asked Leyton. “We’ll have to leave some of you here and come back for you later,” explained Rocky. So we did as we were told and stepped off the plane. As we watched the plane take off, we wondered how long we would be waiting for it to come back.

Chapter 2: Antarctica

Thursday, December 11
South Pole Station, Antarctica

I was chosen as a teacher representative to explore the Southern oceans and the sea ice around Antarctica on the Oden icebreaker. While this has been an amazing  trip, this post is not about my adventures but rather about a mysterious journal found on board.

First, you need to know about life aboard the ice breaker. We operate 24 hours a day so there are day shifts and night shifts and shifts can be shifted. It gets hectic. People are working and sleeping at all hours. On this cold, but slightly warm afternoon, our ship was on auto pilot while we were watching the seals, orcas, and whales. Our auto pilot went off and we heard a noise going “BEEP” in the control room. Under the “auto pilot on” button was a flashing red light. Immediately we knew that something was wrong. The captain took the wheel and turned just in time because we didn’t know that an iceberg was in front of us. We thought everything was good and we went back outside but before we could even continue watching the sealife, the ship lurched violently sideways and we stumbled into each other and looked up feeling confused and puzzled. The silence was broken when someone called from the cabin, “We’ve crashed!” Everyone instantly started to panic. Then the captain shouted, “Everybody settle down. We can evacuate the ship on the life boats and build our base here to study the Antarctic. We can take our supplies from the ship and make a base. Is that clear?” “YESSIR!” The crew sounded the alarm and we hurridly began to pack supplies. It was while leaving that I discovered something unusual. I didn’t have a moment to investigate then but once off the ship, I began to read a curious journal found tucked under the seat in the lifeboat…

Freeze! Fact Number Five

Mrs. Wright’s class invited to “Send Your Class to the Ends of the Earth!”

Jeff Peneston, a PolarTREC teacher, is working with scientists on board the Swedish icebreaker Oden. We did a flag exchange. Jeff mailed us one of his official expedition flags and we designed a Woodriver flag that he took with him to fly over McMurdo Base in Antarctica.

We visit the web site and his PolarTREC journal at: http://www.polartrec.com/oden-antarctica-expedition-08/journals/jeff-peneston.

Personal Journal of Peyton (found at 2400 hours during ship evacuation)

November 28

Tonight we’re going to try to sneak into Sea World to see the Adelie penguins, they’re so cute! April thinks we’ll get caught, but she’s just a scaredy cat. I think we’ll go ’cause Ryan, Amy, and I all want to go. Finally we can get out of the orphanage. The guard never goes to sleep but he ate three helpings of Thanksgiving dinner. We really, really, really want to go to Sea World and see the penguins.

Freeze! Fact Number Six

Adelie penguins breed only in Antarctica. They are only kept captive in a few places like the Sea World parks. Adelie penguins make nests out of small stones. They can dive up to 500 feet! but they prefer to dive shallower to catch prey. They eat krill and small fish.

I can’t write anymore tonight because we’re all pretty sleepy. We’re going to camp out with the penguins tonight!

November 30 - morning

You aren’t going to believe what happened. April said she saw the sign but did she tell us? No! So, anyway, we rushed to hide in with the penguins when the guard came. If April had told us about the sign, instead of acting like a crybaby, we might not be HERE. I guess hiding with the penguins wasn’t the smartest move ’cause the sign said, “PENGUINS BEING SHIPPED TO ANTARCTICA ON 11/29.”

We woke up this morning and we didn’t know where we were! We remembered deciding to stay in with the penguins for the night ’cause we were all so sleepy. That’s when April told us about the sign. Now we’re in a place that looks like a research station…Byrd Research Station, also called B.R.S. It’s a little cramped in this crate with the penguins.

“Well I guess we should find a better hiding place,” Amy said, as she got up and stretched. She pulled on a parka left by the door and told us to wait with the penguins until she got back. April’s still sound asleep so I’m going to explore this B.R.S. place.

Hi, I’m Ryan. Peyton left her journal lying here so I’d better explain. Here’s the situation: I’m the only boy. I have three (yep, three) sisters. We’re quadruplets, born on the same day, March 15. We’re orphans and we had this plan to run away and hide in the zoo. That’s our usual place. Only something went way wrong and we went a lot farther than we planned. We’re writing our story so if you find it, you can help us. We know it was wrong to run away but really it wasn’t our fault. We just really liked visiting the zoo.  We especially liked the penguins. But we fell asleep and when we woke up we felt like we were being lifted into the air. When April found out, she fell over in a dead faint. The penguins started walking on her and honking with fear. We felt like we were losing our stomachs but we were landing and the door on the aircraft swung open to reveal an endless land of white.

Oops, Peyton found me with her journal and started screeching and woke up April. Anyway, Amy just came back and she found a cave! We’re off to explore.

Freeze! Fact Number Seven

Ice caves

We had to slide on our bellies to get into the cave! It was like a giant ice slide. Then we noticed that we had visitors. Four penguins followed us. They didn’t have any trouble getting into the cave because they sort of toboggan on their bellies to move on land. Ryan named his penguin Sam, mine is Misty and April and Amy named theirs Rachel and Dave. Now that we have a place to stay, we’re getting hungry. Actually, we’re STARVING. I’ll write more later.

Freeze! Fact Number Eight

Fish: Kinds of fish in Antarctica are Antarctic cod, ice fish, crocodile fish, dragon fish, robberfish, rat tailed fish, hagfish, skates, and Antarctic toothfish. The mackerel icefish eats krill. The yellow rock-cod is common close to shore.

November 30 - evening

Sometimes April has good ideas. She said we could use her knitting yarn and needles for fishing poles and line. April takes her knitting everywhere. Sam and Misty and Rachel and Dave tried to help catch fish but we were afraid they might get eaten so we made them get out of the water. They jumped so high to get out you’d have thought they were being chased by a leopard seal or an orca.

Freeze! Fact Number Nine

Leopard seals eat penguins, fish, squid and krill. Did you know that they are the only seals in the Antarctic that eat other seals? Leopard seals catch penguins by their feet and then beat them back and forth on the surface of the water to skin them. Then they eat the carcass.

We didn’t want that to happen to Sam and Misty and Rachel and Dave. Luckily, we caught enough fish for ourselves and our penguins. Since April had her sewing scissors in her knitting bag, we could cut them up. Raw fish wasn’t so bad if we just thought, sushi, sushi, sushi… Maybe tomorrow we’ll find a way to get home.

December 1

You won’t believe what happened last night. April said she thought she heard something in the night but she’s always hearing spooky sounds. We were all snuggled together in the cave when “Whoosh” another visitor came down the chute.

Dave and Rachel and Misty and Sam started flapping their flippers at this new arrival. We’d never seen one except in a zoo. Last March for our birthday we got to go to the San Diego Zoo. It was a POLAR BEAR! What was a polar bear doing in Antarctica? He was even farther from home than we were! It didn’t seem like a good idea to stay around and get friendly. DRMS (penguins) were UPSET. April moved faster than I’ve ever seen her move getting out of that cave. Luckily, being smaller than the polar bear, we could fit back out easily leaving him behind.

Hi. This is Amy. Peyton said I should write about this part because I was the one that discovered the ship. I was playing with Dave when Peyton threw a snowball and hit me in the shoulder, SPLAT. I stepped back and tripped. I looked at the sky (trying not to get snow in my eyes) ’cause it was coming down fairly hard. Then Peyton, Ryan and April ran to help me up. They were silent staring at something in the snow. I saw that I’d backed into …..an abandoned boat! It looked like it was stuck in the ice floes.

Freeze! Fact

Shackleton was a famous explorer. His ship, the Endurance, became trapped in the ice and they camped on ice floes for months.

We could just make out the name in the blinding snow. It was called the Odin. I had to stand on Dave’s shoulders then I helped the others scramble on board. We went in all directions searching the ship.

Memo:

December 12

To: Department of Fish and Wildlife, Federal Building, Fairbanks, Alaska

From: State Department of Fish and Game,  Fairbanks, Alaska

Ed:

We got your mail again. Sending it on. Roger

To The Department of Fishing and Wild Game,
We are writing to obtain a permit of approval to move Polar Bears from the Arctic to the Antarctic. We are doing this because of the occurrence of global warming. Scientists have used ice-cores as proof that the arctic is slowly melting.

Because of global warming earth has heated to 1°F higher.  The Arctic Ocean is warming and obviously this is endangering all of the animals especially the Polar Bear whose main habitat is the arctic sea ice. Autumn air temperatures in the arctic are at a record of 5˚C above normal and we believe that within the next two years polar bears will be extinct.

As world leaders work on the Kyoto protocol and agreements to cut down CO2 emissions and hopefully reverse global warming our research shows results from these and other initiatives will be too late for the bears.

We are planning to build a polar bear reserve on Mill Island which is located between Casey and Davis in Australian Territory in East Antarctica.

This will be a good location because it has areas of sea ice which are perfect for hunting seals. The polar bear is the largest meat- eating hunter walking the earth today and it’s main source of high fat diet is the blubber of seals.

In preparation for the polar bears arrival we have already developed a breeding farm for seals and to feed them we also have farmed fish and krill.
The food chain we hope to recreate is:
Krill – fish – seals – polar bears

Our classroom which will become the command centre, research base and vehicle for relocation of polar bears is in the trailer of a mack truck. We can fit 30 students at desks and we have 9 laptop computers set up in our wireless network with a satellite internet connection. We have our own kitchen, toilet and shower and we can store large amounts of equipment to travel with.

To get our trucks ready for the trip to the arctic we have put on tyre chains to grip the ice, jets for thrust and wings. Wires go to the truck to control it, solar panels power the jet engines while vegetable oil is used to power the diesel truck engine. The windscreen and windows have double sheets of glass for strength.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Carrington, Professor Dekoda, Professor Lane & Professor Millacent
Queensland School for Travelling Show Children.

Alaska State Troopers Press Release of Saturday, December 13

DISCLAIMER – Any Charges Reported in these Press Releases are Merely Accusations and the Defendants are Presumed Innocent Unless and Until Proven Guilty.

Location: Kavik

Case number: 08-72943

Type: Wildlife Capture and Transport across State Lines

Text: On 12-1 at 1037 hours the Alaska State Troopers were notified of possible wildlife violation

Troopers responded and interviewed villagers

Investigation revealed polar bear was airlifted to the Antarctic

Author: K.W. Class
Received and posted Saturday, December 13

Alaska State Wildlife Troopers have identified four suspects in what they are calling a case of misguided effort to save polar bears from extinction.

Appendix: Letters from the Authors

Dear Gemma, my dog,
I have just gotten off the truck plane and I am here in the Arctic! On the way here we ran out of fuel so we had to stop in Paris. Just as we were about to land I saw some polar bear cubs with their mum. Everyone was really excited. I better go. I have to help set up the observation post. Bye. Yours thankfully, Zara

Dear Pop,
We are at the Arctic Circle. It is freezing over here We have seen polar bears and some seals. I lost my phone and I had fun. From, Leyton

Dear Mom and Dad,
I miss you. It’s really cold. I saw a polar bear with my friends and I almost fell through the ice but I’m fine and I’m having lots of fun. I hope to see you soon.
From your son, Dylan

Dear Maddix,
How are you? Did you get any new toys? Guess what I saw today? I saw a big polar bear smash the ice to try and catch the seal. It was scary. How is your sister? Does she still love the colour pink? I heard that you’re going to Disneyland. That will be fun. I wish I was going with you. Hope you have fun. From, Madison

Dear Mum,
Hi Mum. How is it going there? We are in the Arctic It was so cold here today. We all had the day off so we went for a little walk. I saw so much like when I spotted the polar bear smashing the ice to catch the seal. And we all spotted walruses on the ice. How is dad? Everybody is fine here. We are having a big day here tomorrow and I have to wake up really early. I will write to you soon. Yours sincerely, Tia

Hi Mom,
How are you doing? It is so cold in the Arctic. We caught our first polar bear today. See you in a few weeks. I love you! Riley

Dear Dad,
Hello Dad. How are you? I’m OK. I have been working so hard. We saw a family of polar bears today and we caught them all successfully. It was hard work but we did it. My highlight of the day was watching the Aurora lights. It was beautiful! How is everybody going there? We are all great here. Good luck with the show tomorrow. Yours truly, Tia

Dear Connor,
How are you bro? I am sick and have frostbite. I am coming home tomorrow to see a doctor. I hope they don’t have to cut my finger off. I never want to come back here again. Yours truly, Keenan

Dear Mum and Dad,
How are you? I am great. At the moment we are in the Arctic. It is freezing here. We are so excited because today we caught our very first polar bear. But as I was climbing into the truck my favourite book fell out of my bag. Remember the one you both gave me for Christmas? “Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi” Anyways, today we are flying over to Antarctica to set the polar bears free. Wish me luck! Yours sincerely, Tia

Dear Dempsey,
Hi bro. How are you? I’m fantastic. Today we have landed safely in the freezing Antarctica. When we parked the truck, we had a bit of fun in the snow. Tonight I have to cook dinner. I hope it turns out all right. All the polar bears got out of the truck safely and are fitting in well. I’m so excited about coming home tomorrow. Hopefully, I will see you this week. Yours sincerely, Tia

Dear Mum and Dad,
I am in the Antarctic releasing the polar bears. It is freezing cold. We are having a snow fight. Today at breakfast we couldn’t find the vegemite. I think it may have been lost in the snow while we were having our snow fight yesterday. I’m not coming home until next week. From, Keenan

Dear Travis,
Right now I’m writing from Antarctica. We just released a polar bear. We also just finished eating dinner. Some Australian kids came and they said we could help release some polar bears in Antarctica. That’s why we’re down here.
Your sister, Piper
PS I really miss you guys. I’ll probably be back in about a week or so.

Dear Connor,
We are having fun here in Antarctica. If I get home and you have broken my Ripstick I am going to take your new computer. The polar bears have been hunting seals and are getting very healthy. A polar bear bit my finger off. Our doctor stitched it up but it sure did hurt and it feels weird. It is hard to hold things and eating is a bit tricky. The doctor said it will feel normal in a couple of months. We still have work to do but I will write again soon. Yours sincerely, Keenan

Dear Mom,
It is not so good here but the plane was not as bumpy as I thought. The next day, I got frostbite but it’s gone now. I still get it once in a while. Oh, yeah, when I first got out of the plane, I almost froze. I’m writing in a cave. I wonder if Antarctica is colder than the Arctic. On the plane I made a few friends.
Love, Jewelynn

Dear Nana,
Hi Nan. How are you? I’m not so great. I have been sick for about three days and I am still not better. They think I will have to get the royal flying doctor service to come. I am a little bit scared. Hopefully, I will be all right. Most of the kids have been sick but I’m not quite sure why. Well I have to go now. Yours sincerely, Tia

Hey Dad,
I’m in the Antarctic right now. It’s freezing cold down here but luckily we were able to find a small flare in a friend’s pocket in case he got lost and wanted to show somebody where he was. But, anyways, we took it to make a fire with some other stuff we had until the heater would start working on the truck. We are also fishing through a hole. We have a big one coming.
Write to you later, Jules

Dear Mum and Dad,
I am in Antarctica. How are you doing back at Geelong Show? I am feeling sick today. Last week the rocket blew up. Some stuff was left over. We called for help and a helicopter is on its way. Yours truly, Leyton

Hi Bab,
I got chased by a polar bear when we were in the Arctic. I did not know that I was his food. I started to slide and glide and he stopped chasing me. Then in Antarctica, I sat on a leopard seal ‘cause I thought it was a rock. He went wild and tossed me off and broke the ice. I’m having fun. Scott

Dear Ash,
How are you? I am fine and warm inside our truck in Antarctica. Last night I saw krill frozen in the ice. I lost your toy bear Bubba on the walk. I went swimming to get the box of food that fell in. I had to wear a thick rubber wetsuit. I had to be on watch for seals. I really enjoyed seeing the penguins. Yours truly, Myah

Dear Mama,
I am feeling good. How are you? Today earlier, I saw Adele penguins. They are so cute! How is my brother doing? I am having lots of fun. It is so much colder than I thought. I went to a place where there are scitics. My, my, my! I always have to wear my iciest sweater. Why didn’t you pack my softest sweater? It is OK. I hope I don’t get sick. I hope to be home in a week or two. I miss you! Love, Annemarie

Dear Miley,
I hope you’re having fun back in Australia. I saw 2 polar bear cubs and one fell in its den. It was so funny. I hope I get to bring you with me sometime. Yours truly, Myah

Dear Mom and Dad,
I am having fun and I think I passed out once but I’m OK. We got to see a baby polar bear. A big bear snuck up on us from behind and I think that was when I passed out I also got to see a polar bear kill a seal. It was disgusting. Well, the inside at least. We took a walk and lost my tooth. It fell in the snow somewhere.
Love, Ben

Hello Mom & Dad,
I am in Antarctica. I am almost done with this mission. It is super hard trying to help some kids who came here. So we just finished for the night. When I go outside it is super cold. Every time I see some penguins they always come to me and just stare at me.

Dear Nalani,
This is boring. I am having not one bit of fun because I lost my bag and I can’t go anywhere or do any thing like play with my friends. Yours truly, Tanah

Dear Cole,
I’m in Antarctica. It’s freezing but I found an ice cave and started to dig a hole. While I was digging, I noticed different forms of ice and I found a small meteorite! Then I decided to mine meteorites. I set up bridges and zip lines to get around the cave Well got to go. I think I see a meteorite!
Tane

Dear Nan,
How are you? I am having fun in Antarctica. It’s freezing but warm in the Truck. At night the Aurora comes out and is so pretty. I had to clean the toilets. It was gross. Then when I finished I went to take a photo of penguins. Then I went back to the base to have lunch and saw krill, fish and leopard seals. The snow is so soft. I just have to be careful of the seals. When we got in the jet Truck we played some games then I lost my bag made out of Australian snake skin. I am having fun. Yours sincerely, Tanah

Hi Dude,
Today I went ice fishing at the Antarctic. I caught a fish that was so strong it pulled me in and the fish was a leopard seal. It bit my hand and I now have a fake hand. I lost my cell phone too.
Tanner

Dear Brother Brody,
I am just on my way back to the tent after releasing the polar bears. It was twenty five below zero today which is pretty normal. When I was releasing one of the polar bears, I think my kangaroo leather wallet might have fallen out of my backpack and was left behind. It had all my money. But I shouldn’t be worrying you with my problems. I have had heaps of fun helping the polar bears and I can’t wait to see you next week. Yours truly, Zara

Dear Nan,
We are on our way home. We successfully released all of the polar bears. When they walked out of their crate they jumped straight into the water and caught some fish. It has been a very cold summer but I still enjoyed it. On one mission when we were seeing if the temperature in Antarctica was suitable for polar bears, a huge albatross flew over my head. It was the biggest bird I have ever seen. When I was packing my gags, I realized that my pure Australian honey was missing. I think I might have left it in the polar bear’s crate that they were flown over in. But I guess with some things you just have to keep moving on. See you tomorrow. Yours faithfully, Zara

Dear Pop,
Hello Pop. I am currently in Antarctica. We have just released all of the polar bears and are getting ready to come home. One polar bear is pregnant so we have to take extra special care of her. We think she is going to have twins. We released her in a place where she can happily build her den. I can’t wait to come home. I am really missing all of you. I will see you on Friday. Yours truly, Zara

Talina,
The pregnant polar bear just had cubs! One tried to get away but when we got it back, another one was gone! We tried searching for it but we had no luck. We came back empty-handed. At least the other cubs were safe though. Soon it was time to pack up to go back to the Arctic to bring more polar bears.
Louis at Antarctica

Queensland School of Travelling showchildren images

]]> http://iem.tmag.tas.gov.au/?feed=rss2&p=28 http://iem.tmag.tas.gov.au/?p=27 http://iem.tmag.tas.gov.au/?p=27#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:18:08 +0000 admin http://iem.tmag.tas.gov.au/?p=27

By the Students of the North Pole Elementary School, Alaska USA and Queensland School for Travelling Show Children ,  Australia

Teachers: Betty Stroup (Alaska), Janet and Ragnar Purje(Australia)

November 2008

A is for the Arctic

Because in Alaska, the Arctic Ocean freezes and beautiful Auroras or Northern Lights give spectacular shows of green and red colors.

A is for Antarctica and Australia

and

Antarctica is a continent surrounded by oceans and is covered by ice. It lies south of the Antarctic Circle. The largest island continent in the world – often referred to as “the land down under”. The population of Australia is approximately 20 million. Canberra is the capital of Australia.

B is for Beluga

Because Beluga whales are cute, white and live in the coastal waters of the Arctic.

B is for Blizzard.

A cold storm with very high fast winds.

C is for  Caribou

Because caribou travel to the Arctic to have their babies. It’s a long trip and they have to fight millions of mosquitoes by moving all the time or running into the Arctic Ocean.

C is for Crevasse.

A crevasse is a fracture in a glacier often covered by a snow-bridge and is nearly invisible. Some of these cracks are large enough to swallow tracked vehicles.

D is for the Arctic Ducks, geese, and swans.

Because in May ducks and birds migrate back to the Arctic to build nests and have their babies.

D is for Dive.

The seals and penguins dive into the water and, then they dive very deep below the surface to look for food.

E is for Ermine

Because ermine are small white furry animals in winter who eat lemmings but can be eaten by hawks or owls so “watch out!”

E is for Emperor Penguin.

The Emperor Penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all penguins and huddles to keep warm.

F is for the sly Arctic fox

Because foxes are clever and always looking for a quick meal. If they don’t catch something themselves they’ll eat another animal’s leftovers or steal an egg or two. How rude!

F is for Food Web.

The Antarctic food web is very sensitive to change. In Antarctica, light is the most important environmental factor affecting marine organisms. Without it, plants that are the base of all food webs, cannot grow. The most important plants in the Southern Ocean are tiny algae called phytoplankton. There are about 600 000 billion krill in the Southern Ocean weighing 500 million tonnes. They are the most abundant animal in the world.

G is for Glaciers

Because Alaska has lots of glaciers in mountains like the Brooks Range. Just standing by one turns the air cool. Burr!

G is for Glacier.

A glacier is a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley or spreading outward on a land surface. The Byrd Glacier is a major glacier in Antarctica, about 136 km long and 24 km wide.

H is for Hibernation

Because the Arctic ground squirrel and a mother polar bear rest throughout the winter and survive off  their stored up body fat. Polar bears give birth to two cubs in their winter den.

H is for Humpback Whale.

The humpback whale is a Baleen whale with long flippers and a raised, rounded back. It is able to swallow thousands of fish in one gulp and will eat 2000-2500 kg of plankton, krill and fish each day.

I is for Iceberg

Because the glacier ice that iceberg are made of is thousands of years old. It’s our planet’s fresh water faucet. In the ocean you only see the tip. Look out below!!!!!

I is for Iceberg.

The largest iceberg recorded is from, the Ross Ice Shelf and it measures 183 miles long (295 kilometres) and is about 25 miles wide (37 kilometres). It extends about 900 feet below the surface and rises about 120 feet (30 metres) above the ocean.

J is for Journey

Because caribou herds, songbirds, ducks, hawks and whales make very long journeys to return to the Arctic every year.

J is for James Cook.

Famous English explorer who is credited with discovering the east coast of Australia in 1770. One of Cook’s expeditions circumnavigated the globe at a very high southern latitude. He was one of the first to first to cross the Antarctic Circle on 17 January 1773.

K is for Krill

Because krill is an important part of the Arctic food chain. They are shrimp like crustaceans that are eaten by baleen whales, seals, squid and even some seabirds.

K is for Krill.

Krill are extremely small, pink coloured shrimp that feed on ice algae. Krill live in swarms. Some krill swarms can be up to 60km long. They feed on phytoplankton and zooplankton. The name krill comes from the Norwegian word krill meaning “young fry of fish.”

L is for Lemmings

Because lemmings look like furry hamsters  that live in tunnels under the snow. They are white in winter and have lots of predators like the owl, Arctic fox and ermine.

L is for Leopard Seal.

The Leopard Seal is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic (after the Southern Elephant Seal), and is near the top of the Antarctic food web.

M is for Mosquitoes

Because mosquitoes are a very important food source for Arctic birds. They hatch in the pools of water that cover the tundra in the summer.

M is for Macaroni Penguin and Mawson (Douglas).

and

Macaroni penguins eat plankton, squid and krill. It got its name because its feathers that arise from the top of its head look like macaroni. English explorers thought that it reminded them of the Yankee Doodle song: (“who stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni”). Douglas Mawson was a famous Australian explorer and geologist who was a member of the team which climbed Mount Erebus, Antarctica’s only active volcano, in March 1908.

N is for Narwhal

Because they live in the Arctic Ocean and have a long tooth on their upper jaw. How cool is that!!!

N is for Nature Reserve.

Natural Reserve area of significant importance. Antarctica is protected by the Antarctic Treaty. Just 2% of this continent is free of ice, allowing hardy animals and plants to survive.

O is for the Snowy Owl

Because they fly quietly in daylight hunting for lemmings, ptarmigan, hares, voles and ducks. Shhhhh!

O is for Ocean and Ozone.

The ‘ozone hole’ over Antarctica, lets in harmful ultra-violet rays to get through to the Earth which means there could be less phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean. No phytoplankton, no krill, no fish, no penguins, no seals and no whales and eventually no people!

P is for Permafrost, Polar Bears and Parka

Because permafrost is frozen ground and I wear my parka in the winter. I stay away from polar bears!

P is for Pancake Ice and Phytoplankton.

and

Circular pieces of ice from 30 cm - 3 m in diameter, and up to 10 cm in thickness, with raised rims due to the pieces striking against one another. The pancakes can freeze together into larger floes or join to make a large ice cover. Phytoplankton floats beneath the Pancake Ice.

Q is for Quiviut

Because that’s the woolly fur under the muskox’s long outer hair that keeps it warm.

Q is for Quench.

The explorers used water to quench their thirst after the long trek across the ice.

R is for Raven

Because Alaskan ravens don’t migrate. They’re big with black feathers that help keep them warm by absorbing heat.

R is for Rookery.

A rookery is a colony of penguins.

S is for Seals

Because the walrus, ringed seal and sea lions all live in the Arctic. Their thick blubber keeps them warm and insulated from the cold.

S is for Sea Ice.

Ice that forms from frozen seawater. Sea ice covers large parts of polar waters in the winter and melts back each summer.

T is for Arctic Tern

Because they are good fliers. They fly from South America to the Arctic over twenty thousand miles every year.

T is for Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

The museum has Antarctic connections and Antarctic displays.

U is for Ulu (OO-loo)

Because the Inuit Eskimo use this special knife to prepare food by cutting and skinning fish or hide from the meat and bones.

U is for Umbrella.

The explorer used an umbrella to stop the gentle falling snow on his head.

V is for Vegetation

Because Arctic vegetation is hardy and blooms quickly during the summer. The animals and birds depend on it for food or for a place to build their nests.

V is for Vast.

The explorers began sailing across the vast sea to Antarctica.

W is for Arctic Wolf

Because wolves hunt in packs and need a lot of wilderness space to stalk their prey. The caribou and muskoxen can see them better on the open tundra.

W is for Weddell Seal.

A Weddell seal can grow to 9.5 feet (2.88 m) long and weighs between 880 to 1320 lbs (400 to 600 kg). It is named after Sir James Weddell, commander of British sealing expeditions in the Weddell Sea.

X marks the Spot (64°45′4″N, 147°21′7″W)

Because we live in the city of North Pole, Alaska which is about 170 miles from the Arctic Circle and 414 miles from the Arctic Ocean. It’s Santa Claus’ home too!

X is for X marks the spot.

The explorers placed an x on the ground to mark the spot of their discovery.

Y is for Yearling

Because young caribou under two years old are called yearling. When baby caribou are born they can walk after two hours. Keep up please and don’t speak to wolves!!!

Y is for Year book.

The Tasmanian Museum produced a year book with information about the Antarctic scientific journeys.

Z is for Zero

Because Arctic temperatures can drop below zero fast! Better wear warm clothes from head to toe!

Z is for Zoologist.

Zoologist studies and records scientific information about animals. Edward Wilson of the Antarctic was Zoologist to the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904. He is remembered today as the artistic scientist who died with Captain Scott.

Glossary and Other Arctic Words (Alaskan)

A- Arctic Ocean, Alaska, Aurora Borealis. Alaska (USA) is part of the northern circumpolar region along with Canada, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Russia that surrounds the Arctic Ocean. This combined landmass blocks warmer equator currents from mingling  much as the lip on a saucer prevents coffee or tea from sloshing out of the dish. The result is the Arctic Ocean forms an ice pack that remains frozen most of the year. This year Alaska celebrates it’s 50th year of Statehood!

B- Belugas communicate with chirps, clicks, and whistles. Echolocation helps them locate the distance and size of objects as sound waves bounce off and return to the Beluga.

C- Caribou-Some Alaskan herds travel to calving areas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge beginning in late April. The Porcupine herd crosses the Brook Mt. range grazing on lichen, green plants, birch or willow twigs they dig up from under the snow. They give birth in May or early June.

D- Ducks-migrate to the Arctic because of the abundance of insects that hatch in the thousand of pockmarked pools of snowmelt. The Arctic is a perfect wilderness for hatching eggs and raising their young without the rest of the world interfering.

E-Eggs,Ermine-Ermines are also known as stoats. Their white coat hides them in the snow and allows them to sneak into snow tunnels to grab lemmings or voles. The tundra is full of eggs from thousand of waterfowls and birds. It’s a feast for any predator that sneaks in unnoticed.

F- Fox, Food Web-Food webs can be made up of several food chains. The fox eats the bird who eats the insects then the fox may be eaten by a polar bear. Parts of the fox will decompose and provide enrichment for the soil that feeds the seeds for the next plant that the lemming might need for food. And so it goes on and on.

G-Glaciers hold the world’s fresh water supply. Scientists study the accelerated rate of the break off and melting of glaciers to determine the affect it’s having on the climate of the world. One bit of data that’s being recorded is the change in the salinity of the oceans.

H-Hibernation-Arctic ground squirrels and the female polar bear will lower their breathing rate and body temperature to go into a sleep like state. Bears aren’t true hibernators because they have been known to wake up and roam, perhaps searching for food, before returning to their cozy dens to sleep again.

I- Iceberg, Inuit (Iñupiat) Eskimos, igloo- Iñupiat Eskimos live in modern homes not in igloos. Igloos can be built within a couple of hours by Iñupiat hunters to protect them from harsh and life-threatening situations while hunting.

J- Journey-Many of the Arctic animals travel from far off places often crossing mountains, boreal forests, tundra and forging rivers. Birds fly thousands of miles, without stopping or eating to reach the Arctic for the summer. After having their young and building up body fat, they make a return trip by instinct.

K- Kayak, Krill-small shrimp like creatures(crustaceans) that provide a major food source for marine life in all oceans. A kayak is a small, one or two manned boat made of seal skins and used by the Inuit People to hunt seals.

L- Laird Crashing, Collared Lemmings-Lemmings, an important Arctic food source, change the color of their fur from brown in summer to white in winter. They build tunnels in the snow and remain active in their burrows in winter producing lots of babies. Polar bears bounce on the ice pack to make holes for seals. They wait patiently for dinner. Sometimes the polar bear will cover its black nose with its huge white paw for added camouflage.

M- Mosquitoes, Midnight Sun-On June 22, summer solstice, the longest day of the year, there’s daylight even at midnight.The sun doesn’t set. Alaskans celebrate by watching baseball games, washing cars and running races. We spray ourselves with mosquito repellent for protections from those pesky insects.

N-Narwals have two teeth but usually only one on the upper jaw will grow between 6-10 feet long. This tusked tooth is found on male but scientist aren’t sure what it’s used for, maybe to fight for a mate.Fables have called them “unicorns of the sea”. People and Orcas are their primary predators.

O- Snowy Owls remain in the Arctic all year long and are completely covered by feathers from their beak to their toes. Only the male is white. The female has darker shadings and spots.They have excellent eyesight and can see a very long way off.

P- Permafrost, Polar Bears, Parka Pipeline, Polaris Star-Permafrost is frozen ground and above it is the North Star in the Ursa Minor constellation. During cold winter nights, Alaskans wear warm parkas or hooded jackets. The Pipeline is an engineering marvel, stretching and carrying oil over and under the tundra and frozen Arctic, crossing mountains and rivers for 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay in the North Slope to the ice free port of Valdez .

Q-    Quivuit, Alaska Quarter—The softer inner hair keep oxen warm and when collected and woven,  the quivuit makes incredibly soft and warm clothing. It would take a lot of newly minted, 50th anniversary Alaska Statehood quarters to purchase something made out of quivuit but it would be worth every cent!

R- Raven-This trickster, often considered a symbol of wisdom in Native stories and the bringer of Light into the Earth’s Darkness, is a “cousin” to the crow. They playfully fly around in pairs performing entertaining acrobatic rolls and playing tag. Large group of ravens are called a murder. Because they seem to eat anything ravens can be a nuisance raiding trash containers and spreading trash everywhere which is why they’ve been nicknamed “dumpster chickens” by many Alaskans.

S- Seals, Scientist, Snowfall-Both Polar Regions are considered deserts because of the small amounts of snow precipitation they receive. Much of what is already there has been compressed by millions of  years of accumulation. Scientist are busy recording present warming trends happening everywhere but especially at the Poles.The changes in the Poles might be the “canary in the mine” to record rapid global warming trends.The torpedo shape of a seal’s body allows it to glide effortlessly under water resembling a ballerina’s precise dance movements. Beautiful to watch, they can stay under water up to 30 minutes before coming up for air. They will chew or  bump up against the ice to create breathing holes. Polar bears and Iñupiat Eskimos look for these tell-tale holes when they hunt the seal.

T- Tundra means “treeless”. In the July and August, the tundra landscape holds pools of water from snow runoff  and melt. The top 4-6 inches becomes swampy. The rest of the ground is permanently frozen all the time while Arctic temperatures don’t get higher than the high 50’s Fahrenheit.

U- Ulu and Umiak are used by Inuit Eskimos. The umiak is a large boat made from seals or walrus skin the Inuits hunt. These traditional tools and  Ways of Knowing  allow them to live their subsistence lifestyle in an unpredictable and harsh region. Modern conveniences and tools such as snow machines help them speed across the frozen tundra to hunt and visit other villages.

V- Vegetation (flora and fauna)-The hardy Arctic flowers almost bloom immediately and both flowers and plants such as lichen, grasses, berries are low to the ground for protection from  strong Arctic winds. The fauna are the many animals that live in the Arctic and depend on the plants and flower as part of their delicate food chain.

W- Wolves, whales, winter solstice—The beluga, bowhead and narwhal whales are comfortable living in Arctic waters. Wolves are plentiful in Alaska and help to keep the caribou herd population down naturally.The winter solstice, Dec. 22, is the shortest day of the year. Beginning on Dec 23rd. the evening television news announcing how many minutes of daylight Alaska has gained each day. The promise of more daylight and thoughts of spring keep Alaskans going through the long dark and cold winter nights of January and February.

X- Marks OUR spot –Another name for the Arctic is the “Top of the World”. We love living in Alaska and in our home town of North Pole but it’s NOT the magnetic North Pole. We think  our town is  the best place to live because it’s decorated for Christmas all year long and of course, Santa lives here.

Y- Yearling –Yearlings are very young caribou, moose or even horses that are under two and still hang around mom.That’s cool!

Z- Zero, zooplankton-We are used to the cold up here and learn how to “layer up” to survive the frigid weather and wind. The wind can actually make it colder creating a “windchill” factor that is colder than the actual temperature outside.  We also like to throw water into the air at -25 to -30 degrees Fahrenheit and watch it come down as crystallized ice particles. We go out for recess up to -20 F degrees below.  Zooplankton—look at “zoo” in zooplankton to remember these are microscopic animals found in the oceans and an extremely important part of the marine food chain.

Antarctic Alphabet Glossary (Australian)

Algae – plants which grow in water or most ground, and which have no true stems, roots or leaves.

Antarctica – the fifth largest continent, c.5,500,000 sq mi (14,245,000 sq km), asymmetrically centered on the South Pole and almost entirely within the Antarctic Circle. It is the largest desert in the world with only thick ice layers replacing the typical sands and the most chilling place on Earth.

Antarctic Circle – the imaginary circle around the south of Earth.

Antarctic Treaty – recognised as one of the world’s most successful international agreements, 45 countries that have signed up to the Treaty which protects the area to be used for scientific research and peaceful purposes only.

Australia – the largest island continent in the world – often referred to as “the land down under”. The population of Australia is approximately 20 million. Canberra is the capital of Australia.

Baleen whale – whalebone is the means by which baleen whales feed. These whales do not have teeth, but instead have rows of baleen plates in the upper jaw - a flat, flexible plate that is used to strain food from seawater.

Blizzard – a cold storm with winds of at least 56 kilometres per hour (35 miles per hour) and temperatures below - 6.7°C (20°F). Usually also characterised by poor visibility due to snow blowing around. Little snow may actually fall during a blizzard, the high winds pick up snow from the ground and carry it around, and visibility is often greatly reduced.

Circumnavigated – to sail or fly completely around the world.

Colony – a group of the same type of animal.

Continent – one of the earth’s largest land masses.

Crevasse – a deep, usually vertical, crack or split in a glacier, occurs as a result of the brittle ice flowing over an uneven surface beneath the ice. Crevasses can easily become covered by blown snow, even very wide ones. Great care must be taken when crossing ice and snow fields to avoid them.

Discover – to be the first to find or find out about.

Discovery – a person, place, or thing that has been discovered.

Dive – to plunge into water; to power and plunge underwater.

Emperor Penguins – the Emperor Penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species that only lives in Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching 122 cm (48 in) in height and weighing anywhere from 22–37 kg (48–82 lb). Like all penguins, it is flightless, with a streamlined body and wings stiffened and flattened into flippers for a marine lifestyle. Fish form the bulk of its diet, which can include crustaceans, such as krill, and cephalopods, such as squid. In hunting, the species can remain submerged up to 18 minutes, diving to a depth of 535 m (1,755 ft). The Emperor Penguin is perhaps best known for the sequence of journeys adults make each year in order to mate and to feed their offspring. The only penguin species that breeds during the Antarctic winter, it treks 50–120 km (31–75 miles) over the ice to breeding colonies which may include thousands of individuals. The female lays a single egg, which is incubated by the male while the female returns to the sea to forage; parents subsequently take turns foraging at sea and caring for their chick in the colony. The lifespan is typically 20 years in the wild, although observations suggest that some individuals may live to 50 years of age.

Expedition – an organized journey or voyage.

Explorer – a person who examines or investigates.

Explorers – one who travels, examines or investigates in a systematic fashion. Amundsen, Scot and Shackleton were Antarctic explorers.

Floes (ice) – a sheet of ice floating in the sea. East Antarctica has the largest ice floe.

Food web – a series of organisms in a community, each member of which feeds on another in the web and is in turn eaten.

Fracture – to break or crack.

Fry – a young fish.

Glacier – a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley or spreading outward on a land surface.

Huddle – heaped or crowed together.

Humpback Whale – large rorqual whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) with long flippers and a raised rounded back.

Iceberg – a large piece of floating ice that has sheered, or broken off, a glacier or ice shelf. The visible part of an iceberg, above the water line, is only some 10 percent of the actual size of the iceberg. Icebergs occur in lakes and the ocean and can be vast; in some cases icebergs can be the size of islands or even small countries.

James Cook – famous English explorer who is credited with discovering the east coast of Australia in 1770. This discovery, by James Cook, eventually led to Australia being settled by the First Fleet, under Captain Arthur Phillips in 1778. James Cook was born in the Yorkshire village of Marton on October 27, 1728. The Antarctic continent was circumnavigated by Captain James Cook in the 18th Century, though he never actually saw it. James Cook was killed in Hawaii in 1779.

Krill – are extremely small, pink coloured shrimp that feed on ice algae. Krill live in swarms. Some krill swarms can be up to 60km long.

Latitude – an angular distance measured in degrees north or south of the equator.

Leopard Seal – the Leopard seal is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic (after the Southern Elephant Seal), and is near the top of the Antarctic food chain. It is most common in the southern hemisphere along the coast of Antarctica and on most sub-Antarctic islands, but can also be found on the coasts of southern Australia, Tasmania, South Africa, New Zealand, Lord Howe Island, Tierra del Fuego, the Cook Islands, and the Atlantic coast of South America.

Macaroni Penguin – this large, crested penguin is similar in appearance to other members of the genus Eudyptes; the macaroni penguin is, however, larger than all other species except the royal penguin. Males and females are similar in appearance, but males tend to be slightly larger. The macaroni penguin is mainly active during the day. They feed mainly on krill (shrimp-like crustaceans), although in some areas, fish become an increasingly important food source as the breeding season progresses. It has been estimated that macaroni penguins alone consume four million tonnes of krill each year.

Mawson (Douglas) – (1882-1958). Australian explorer and geologist, born in Bradford, England, and educated at the University of Sydney. He was a member of the scientific staff in the 1907 expedition of the British explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, which came within 179 km (111 mi) of the South Pole. Mawson organised and commanded (1911-14) an Australasian expedition to explore Antarctic lands south of Australia; two of his companions perished during this arduous, extensive journey.

Mount Erebus – a volcano on Ross Island first visited in March 1908 by members of Shackleton’s expedition.

Museum – a building where objects of historical, artistic, or scientific interest are exhibited and preserved.

Nature Reserve – a nature reserve (natural reserve, nature preserve, natural preserve) is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for

conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research. Nature reserves may be designated by governments or by the United Nations.

Norwegian – a person from Norway.

Ocean – the vast body of salt water that covers almost three fourths of the earth’s surface.

Organisms – an animal or plant (living).

Ozone hole – a thinning of the stratosphere clouds.

Plankton – Plankton is defined as being those organisms that inhabit the upper regions of a body of water, but cannot move about against the influence of water movements such as currents, they move generally with the water column although may be able to move small distances.

Phytoplankton – microscopic free-swimming or suspended marine or freshwater plants within the plankton. Phytoplankton includes diatoms and other photosynthetic algae, a crucial part of almost all aquatic food webs.

Quench – to slake, satisfy, or allay (thirst, etc.). The explorers used water to quench their thirst after the long trek across the ice.

Rookery – a colony of rooks, the term is also used for a colony of penguins.

Scientific – used in science.

Ross Ice Shelf – is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica.

Sea ice – a general term for any ice that forms from frozen seawater. Sea ice covers large parts of polar waters in the winter and melts back each summer.

Slope – a slant or incline.

Snow-bridge – is an arc across a crevasse.

South Pole – South magnetic pole - the point on Earth’s surface that a south-seeking compass needle seeks. At the South magnetic pole a compass needle will point vertically downwards. This point is currently off the coast of Wilkes Land and wanders around.

Survive – to live, continue in existence.

Tasmanian Museum – Tasmania’s state museum and art gallery established in the 1840s as the museum of the Royal Society of Tasmania. The buildings and site are of historical significance and include the first purpose built museum building dated 1863, the Commissariat Store 1808, the Cottage c1810 converted 1828, the Bond Store and Court Yard and Gateway 1823, the Queen’s warehouse 1874, Art Gallery 1901, Custom House 1901 and extension of 1966 and 1986. The collections include Natural Sciences (Zoology, Botany, and Geology), Applied Science, Humanities (Art, Decorative Arts, Costume, Social History, Indigenous Cultures, Numismatics, Photographs, Documents and Ephemera) and Library. The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery also includes the Tasmanian Herbarium.

Ultra-violet – harmful end of spectrum light.

Valley – a long area of low land between hills, usually containing a river.

Vast – of very great area or extent; immense: the vast reaches of outer space; the Sahara and Antarctica are vast deserts.

Weddell Seal – the Weddell Seal (Leptonychotes weddellii), is a true seal that occurs in large numbers and inhabit the circumpolar region of the southern hemisphere, including Antarctica. A Weddell seal can grow 9.5 feet (2.88 m) long and weigh between 880 to 1320 lbs (400 to 600 kg).It is estimated that there are approximately 800,000 individuals today. It can regularly be seen in the many seasonally ice-free islands along the Antarctic Peninsula. This pinniped is not thought to migrate, and any local movements are usually the result of changes in ice conditions. It is named after Sir James Weddell, commander of British sealing expeditions in the Weddell Sea. It is the only species in the genus Leptonychotes.

Zoologist – a zoologist studies and records scientific information about animals. Edward Wilson of the Antarctic was Zoologist to the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904. He is remembered today as the artistic scientist Captain Scott.

Zooplankton – microscopic free-swimming or suspended marine or freshwater animals within the plankton. Many marine animals spend part of their lives as zooplankton, often as a juvenile life stage. One of the most important components of the Antarctic zooplankton is krill.

References

http://archive.amol.org.au/foundmade/instquery.asp?ID=T052&fm=y

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/endemic%20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic

http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Dophins

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Anarctica

http://geography.about.com/cs/politicalgeog/a/antarctica.htm

http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100444b.htm

http://www.allwords.com/word-krill.html

http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/antarctica_glossary_of_terms2.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glacier

http://www.south-pole.com/p0000071.htm

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Antarctic+Circle

http://www.yourdictionary.com/humpback

www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/practical-guides/the-woodlandscouk-jargon-buster-pt-2/

Botanical Society of America.Inc.

1902Encyclopedia.com

Landcareresearch.com.nz

Collins Australian Pocket Dictionary.

Contributors to the Arctic Alphabet Book: Mrs. Betty Stroup, 2nd. Graders, North Pole Elementary School, North Pole, Alaska

A-Kecrya Sam
B-Cladie Eslick
C-Jonathan Paulson
D-Katie White
E-Michael Evans
F-Halee Howe
G-Brandon Wilson
H-Henry Lilley
I- H.Tyler Paek
J-Morgan Chiarell
K-Isabell Still
L-Ashuanna Hardy
M-Logan Lewellyn
N-Aidin Ash
O-Jonathan Paulson
P-Monique Bender
Q-Paige Rumfelt
R-Skylar Poehls
S-Ryland Nierman
T-India Smartt
U-Abgail Bystedt
V-Austin Schulte
W-Billy LaFon
X-Kecrya Sam
Y-Bradley Hallum
Z-Katherine Spencer