Larry Enos, age 9, of Visalia, Calif., or his question:

Does any reptile live in Antarctica?

For the first time in history the snow white land mass of Antarctica is getting a thorough geophysical examination. This is the IGY, the International Geophysical Year. Scientists of many nations are, at this moment, studying the cold, lonely land of the south pole. When these studies are sifted, sorted and put together we shall have a far better understanding of Antarctica.

Already they suspect that Antarctica may not be a solid land mass. It may be a series of islands covered with a single tablecloth of solid ice. This thick ice field covers most of the area within the Antarctic Circle. But the climate here was not always so icy. For in Antarctica there are great mountains of coal. And coal is formed from ancient swamp forests.

Our knowledge of Antarctica is no doubt far from complete. But the scientists working down there in Deep Freeze know a few things for certain Not one of them will be bitten by a crocodile or an alligator. Nat one of them fears a rattlesnake's bite or a cobra's coils. And not one of them expects to find a lizard basking on the ice under the midnight sun.

These animals, along with the turtles and the tortoises, make up the vast class of Reptilia, the reptiles. And, for a very good reason, nave of them can endure cold. weather. They are all cold.‑blooded animals. They cannot turn food into body heat. The only warmth they can get is from their surroundings, the earth ‑end the air. The Antarctic ice field has no warmth to give. kny reptile or cold‑blooded animal who sat on that ice would soon be frozen solid..

Reptiles are most successful in tropical regions. There w© find the really big snakes, the monster lizards, the giant crocodiles. Some survive in temperate zones, hibernating through the winter. But snakes, for example, cannot survive where the ground is frozen most of the year. There are no snakes in Alaska for this reason. However, one snake doffs live within the Arctic Circle. He lives near the shores of Greenland  where the land is washed with a warm acem current.

The icy shores of Antarctica are wild end stormy, never above freezing point. Nevertheless, certain warm‑blooded animals choose to live there. The lonely Albatross flies overhead. Armies of happy penguins populate the shares and the icy cliffs. Seals and their relatives hunt and play in the off shore waters and even under the ices

The Antarctic waters foam with fish, for the waters are warmer than the ice‑bound land.  Sometimes a school of whales drift by. And here in the off shore waters we may find the only reptile who dares even approach the cold continent. Rarely, very rarely, a giant sea turtle makes his wayaround Cape Horn from the Pacific to the Atlantic. But  he does not dare to land on the ice.