i9ix] FLOE TEMPERATURES 267 
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 docs. 
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 £ ' 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 0 or 5 0 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 0 to -19 0 . The party 
docs 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 
