2I 4 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[March 
The period of our stay here seems to promise to 
lengthen. It is trying — trying — but we can live, which is 
something. I should not be greatly surprised if we had 
to wait till May. Several skuas were about the camp 
yesterday. I have seen none to-day. 
Two rorquals were rising close to Hut Point this 
morning — although the ice is nowhere thick it was strange 
to see them making for the open leads and thin places to 
blow. 
Friday^ March 31. — I studied the wind blowing along 
the ridge yesterday and came to the conclusion that a 
comparatively thin shaft of air was moving along the 
ridge from Erebus. On cither side of the ridge it seemed 
to pour down from the ridge itself — there was practically 
no wind on the sea ice off Pram Point, and to the westward 
of Hut Point the frost smoke was drifting to the N.W. 
The temperature ranges about zero. It seems to be 
almost certain that the perpetual wind is due to the open 
winter. Meanwhile the sea refuses to freeze over. 
Wright pointed out the very critical point which zero 
temperature represents in the freezing of salt water, being 
the freezing temperature of concentrated brine — a very 
few degrees above or below zero would make all the 
difference to the rate of increase of the ice thickness. 
Yesterday the ice was 8 inches in places east of Cape 
Armitage and 6 inches in our Bay : it was said to be fast 
to the south of the Glacier Tongue well beyond Turtle- 
back Island and to the north out of the Islands, except 
for a strip of water immediately north of the Tongue. 
We are good for another week in pretty well every 
