http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20091216/tts-antarctica-nzealand-heritage-offbeat-c1b2fc3.html
Century-old butter found in Scott's Antarctic
hut
AFP - Wednesday, December 16
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This undated composite image from NASA shows Antarctica. Two blocks
of butter have been found intact after nearly a century in an
Antarctic hut used by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his
doomed 1910-12 expedition, according to a report.
WELLINGTON (AFP) - – Two blocks of butter have been found intact
after nearly a century in an Antarctic hut used by British explorer
Robert Falcon Scott on his doomed 1910-12 expedition, a report
said.
Television New Zealand reported that conservators found the two
blocks of New Zealand butter in bags in stables attached to the
expedition Hut at Cape Evans in Antarctica.
The extreme cold of the polar region has preserved the hut and
expedition equipment inside, but recent signs of deterioration had
prompted the Antarctic Heritage Trust to launch a preservation
project.
The trust's Lizzie Meek said the butter was a "treasure
find".
"It's quite amazing how strong the smell is after nearly 100
years," Meek said at the hut. "I'm not sure I'd want it on my
toast."
Scott used the Cape Evans hut as a base for his expedition to the
South Pole, which he and four others reached on 17 January, 1912.
But they found that Norwegian Roald Amundsen had beaten them by
five weeks to reach the South Pole for the first time.
Scott and his four companions all died on the return journey to
Cape Evans.
The latest find follows news last month of the discovery of two
crates of Scotch whisky under a hut used by another British
explorer, Ernest Shackleton, during his 1907-09 expedition to
Antarctica.