1974 School Magazine

SUR.VNVA[- The day had dawned softly on the -hard, cold ice of the- Antarctic. Some hours before, a sleek grey spotted leopard seal had poked his -small, 6rifht-eyed head-up through the ice for a breath of the ilear morning air. After a quick glance around him at the bleak snow and even bleaker skv, he slid down and plunged once again beneath th6 icy water. F{e had no idea of his fate yet to come. He was lucky. Not far away, on a smooth stretch of ice, the men were rising from warm beds, preparing for another routine day's work. After a steaming breakfast of rather tasteless fried penguin, the day's operations began for them. The equipmert was brbugtrt out and they began treating the atmosphere for radio-active failout. Towards dusk, some of them, whose task it was to bring in the station's dinner, set out armed with .azor-slatp harpoons. Most of the local penguins seemed to have left for better hunting grounds, so it was decided that the night's meal would have to be seal. The men found a breathing-hole in the ice and sat down to wait, eyes fixed on the hole. The leopard seal cruised happily through the calm water, snapping up a fish or two' very con- tented with life. -Soon he would need some air and so he began looking for a hole. The presence of a human settlement in the area was well-known to him. But he decided to risk just one breath. He darted for one last fish on the way up to the ice. Deep-down he knew that he shouldn't breathe here. But it was unlikely that there would be hunters above this particular hole. The hole was coming closer and closer. Should he? Yes, why not? He needed the air' A brief second before he reacheci the hole he thought he saw a shadow. It was too laie. He shot up the last few feet to the hole' It all happened in an instant. The shape loomed above him. The harpoon cut through the thin air' It pierced his flesh and buried its head deep inside him' He lived only a minute longer, just long enough to realize how ioolish he had been. But it was the end, there rvas nothing to be done now. He was finished. Pleased rvith the returned, dragging white ice. evening's catch, the hunters the poor body over the clean Julienne Munro IIA

Anita Betts, VID

ODE TO UNDERCLOTHES you wouldn't believe how many secret laYers of underclothes i have on. i am milling with millions on the street, a:nd they won't EVER know. the secret's all mine - no one could guess the depths of spencers and stocktngs and furry undergarments that i have hidden here. you wouldn't believe how many secret layers of underclothes i have on.

s w chandler