as Cape Royds. The uncertainty of another ice break-out such as that 

 which destroyed Dr. Van der Hoven's hut the previous year postponed 

 establishment of an oceanographic station until well into March. By 

 that time, the fast ice had not broken out farther south than Arrival 

 Bay to the north of Hut Point. In the meantime, an electric-hydraulic 

 winch and "A" frame with a 2§ KW Onan generator were installed on a 

 heavy sled, which was towed with a Polecat snow vehicle. (Plates III 

 & IV). Two series of sounding lines were run north and south and 

 roughly east and west across the new ice, which was at that time 

 between 5 and 9 feet thick. (Plates V & VI). An eight-inch hole was 

 drilled with a Jiffy power drill which worked very well at thicknesses 

 less than about 10 feet; at greater thicknesses considerable trouble 

 was experienced with the auger sticking in the hole. This trouble 

 probably was caused by the slight buckling of the four three-foot 

 auger sections at greater depths. The use of arctic diesel oil in 

 the hole might have prevented some sticking and freezing, but this 

 was not tried. Attempts were made to drill larger holes with a 

 Remington one-foot diameter ordinary earth auger and motor. After 

 the cutting edge of the auger had been changed to about 25° from the 

 vertical, the drill cut very rapidly down as far as about 4 feet. 

 Beyond this depth, however, the extensions buckled and caused the 

 auger to stick and freeze in. Moreover, spiral flanges for removing 

 chipped ice were fitted only on the first three feet of the auger 

 which necessitated removing and clearing the auger frequently, a job 

 which tested the strength of two men. 



A sounding lead, consisting of a three-foot Phleger tube with 

 plastic liner which was lead-filled at the upper end and which had 

 water escape holes drilled below the lead, was used in an attempt to 

 secure bottom samples. The bottom was too hard for penetration, 

 however, and in only about 18 of the 28 holes was it possible to 

 obtain any sediment at all and that consisted of only a few grains 

 in most cases. A 35-lb. Phleger corer was slimmed down to fit the 

 8-inch hole but recovered very little more sediment from the bottom. 

 On the second attempt with this instrument, it jammed in the hole 

 coming up and the 3/32-inch wire broke. The "pipe" corer was used 

 from then on; it weighed about 25 pounds and the impact on striking 

 bottom was unmistakable. The locations of the two sounding lines 

 are shown in Figure 1 (H. 0. 6667). Direction of the lines in 

 relation to prominent land features was determined by transit, and 

 the distance between holes was paced off, holes being 300 yards 

 apart in most cases. Plate VII shows trail along N-S sounding holes. 



The next to the last hole near the southern boundary of the new 

 fast ice was selected as the site for the oceanographic station, 

 because the water beneath it was 579 meters deep and the ice was 

 only 7 feet thick. By late March, it was decided to establish the 



