i9l A CURRENT VANE 233 



with the water. It is hung up by the beach ice. When we were 

 considering the question of removing the whole apparatus to a 

 more distant point, a fresh crack appeared between it and the 

 shore, and on this ' hinge ' the floe seems to be moving more 

 freely. 



Friday, June 30, 191 1. The temperature is steadily falling; 

 we are descending the scale of negative thirties and to-day 

 reached its limit, - 39 . Day has manufactured a current vane, 

 a simple arrangement: up to the present he has used this near 

 the Cape. There is little doubt, however, that the water move- 

 ment is erratic and irregular inside the islands, and I have been 

 anxious to get observations which will indicate the movement in 

 the ' Strait.' I went with him to-day to find a crack which I 

 thought must run to the north from Inaccessible Island. We 

 discovered it about 2 to 2^ miles out and found it to be an 

 ideal place for such work, a fracture in the ice sheet which is 

 constantly opening and therefore .always edged with thin ice. 

 Have told Day that I think a bottle weighted so as to give it 

 a small negative buoyancy, and attached to a fine line, should 

 give as good results as his vane and would be much handier. 

 He now proposes to go one better and put an electric light in 

 the bottle. 



We found that our loose dogs had been attacking a seal, and 

 then came across a dead seal which had evidently been worried 

 to death some time ago. It appears Demetri saw more seal 

 further to the north, and this afternoon Meares has killed a large 

 one as well as the one which was worried this morning. 



It is good to find the seals so close, but very annoying to 

 find that the dogs have discovered their resting-place. 



The long spell of fine weather is very satisfactory. 



Saturday, July 1, 191 1. We have designed new ski boots 

 and I think they are going to be a success. My object is to stick 

 to the Huitfeldt binding for sledging if possible. One must wear 

 finnesko on the Barrier, and with finnesko alone a loose binding 

 is necessary. For this we brought ' Finon ' bindings, consisting 

 of leather toe straps and thong heel binding. With this arrange-, 

 ment one does not have good control of his ski and stands the 

 chance of a chafe on the ' tendon Achillis.' Owing to the last 

 consideration many had decided to go with toe strap alone as 

 we did in the Discovery. This brought into my mind the possi- 



