i0xxj UNEXPECTED ICE CONDITIONS 359 
into the water in some seal hole or crack. In either case 
Fm afraid we must be resigned to another loss. It's an 
awful nuisance. 
Gran went to C. Royds to-day. I asked him to report 
on the open water, and so he went on past the Cape. As 
far as I can gather he got half-way to C. Bird before he 
came to thin ice ; for at least 5 or 6 miles past C. Royds 
the ice is old and covered with wind-swept snow. This 
is very unexpected. In the Discovery first year the ice 
continually broke back to the Glacier Tongue : in the 
second year it must have gone out to C. Royds very early 
in the spring if it did not go out in the winter, and in 
the Nimrod year it was rarely fast beyond C. Royds. It 
is very strange, especially as this has been the windiest 
year recorded so far. Simpson says the average has 
exceeded 20 m.p.h. since the instruments were set up, 
and this figure has for comparison 9 and 12 m.p.h. for the 
two Discovery years. There remains a possibility that 
we have chosen an especially wind-swept spot for our 
station. Yet I can scarcely believe that there is generally 
more wind here than at Hut Point. 
I was out for two hours this morning — it was amazingly 
pleasant to be able to see the inequalities of one's path, 
and the familiar landmarks bathed in violet light. An 
hour after noon the northern sky was intensely red. 
Monday, July 31. — It was overcast to-day and the 
light not quite so good, but this is the last day of another 
month, and August means the sun. 
One begins to wonder what the Crozier Party is doing. 
It has been away five weeks. 
