Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 1.djvu/425

1911] forms especially in the region of the Koettlitz glacier are unique.

The Strait has been frozen over a week. I cannot understand why the Hut Point party doesn't return. The weather continues wonderfully calm though now looking a little unsettled. Perhaps the unsettled look stops the party, or perhaps it waits for the moon, which will be bright in a day or two.

Any way, I wish it would return, and shall not be free from anxiety till it does.

Cherry-Garrard is experimenting in stone huts and with blubber fires—all with a view to prolonging the stay at Cape Crozier.

Bowers has placed one thermometer screen on the floe about ¾′ out, and another smaller one above the Ramp. Oddly, the floe temperature seems to agree with that on Wind Vane Hill, whilst the hut temperature is always 4° or 5° colder in calm weather. To complete the records a thermometer is to be placed in South Bay.

Science—the rock foundation of all effort!!

Wednesday, May 10.—It has been blowing from the south 12 to 20 miles per hour since last night; the ice remains fast. The temperature −12° to −19°. The party does not come. I went well beyond Inaccessible Island till Hut Point and Castle Rock appeared beyond Tent Island—that is, well out on the space which was last seen as open water. The ice is 9 inches thick—not much for eight or nine days' freezing; but it is very solid—the surface wet but very slippery. I suppose Meares waits