ion] 
ACTION OF SEA WATER ON ICE 
sketches explain themselves. I think wall ' b y should 
be higher than wall ' a.' 
My night on duty. The silent hours passed rapidly 
and comfortably. To bed 7 a.m. 
Thursday, June 8. — Did not turn out till 1 p.m., then 
with a bad head, an inevitable sequel to a night of vigil. 
Walked out to and around the bergs, bright moonlight, 
but clouds rapidly spreading up from south. 
Tried the snow knife, which is developing. Debcnham 
and Gran went off to Hut Point this morning ; they 
should return to-morrow. 
Friday, June 9. — No wind came with the clouds of 
yesterday, but the sky has not been clear since they spread 
over it except for about two hours in the middle of the 
night when the moonlight was so bright that one might 
have imagined the day returned. 
Otherwise the web of stratus which hangs over us 
thickens and thins, rises and falls with very bewildering 
uncertainty. We want theories for these mysterious 
weather conditions ; meanwhile it is annoying to lose the 
advantages of the moonlight. 
This morning had some discussion with Nelson and 
Wright regarding the action of sea water in melting 
barrier and sea ice. The discussion was useful to me in 
drawing attention to the equilibrium of layers of sea water. 
In the afternoon I went round the Razor Back Islands 
on ski, a run of 5 or 6 miles ; the surface was good but 
in places still irregular with the pressures formed when 
the ice was 6 young.' 
The snow is astonishingly soft on the south side of 
