e water. It is hung up by the beach ice. When we
were considering the question of removing the whole apparatus to a
more distant point, a fresh crack appeared between it and the shore,
and on this 'hinge' the floe seems to be moving more freely.
_Friday, June_ 30, 1911.--The temperature is steadily falling; we are
descending the scale of negative thirties and to-day reached its limit,
-39 deg.. Day has manufactured a current vane, a simple arrangement:
up to the present he has used this near the Cape. There is little
doubt, however, that the water movement is erratic and irregular
inside the islands, and I have been anxious to get observations which
will indicate the movement in the 'Strait.' I went with him to-day to
find a crack which I thought must run to the north from Inaccessible
Island. We discovered it about 2 to 2 1/2 miles out and found it to
be an ideal place for such work, a fracture in the ice sheet which is
constantly opening and therefore always edged with thin ice. Have told
Day that I think a bottle weighted so as to give it a small negative
buoyancy, and attached to a fine line, should give as good results as
his vane and would be much handier. He now proposes to go one better
and put an electric light in the bottle.
We found that our loose dogs had been attacking a seal, and then
came across a dead seal which had evidently been worried to death
some time ago. It appears Demetri saw more seal further to the north,
and this afternoon Meares has killed a large one as well as the one
which was worried this morning.
It is good to find the seals so close, but very annoying to find that
the dogs have discovered their resting-place.
The long spell of fine weather is very satisfactory.
_Saturday, July_ 1, 1911.--We have designed new ski boots and I
think they are going to be a success. My object is to stick to the
Huitfeldt binding for sledging if possible. One must wear finnesko on
the Barrier, and with finnesko alone a loose binding is necessary. For
this we brought 'Finon' bindings, consisting of leather toe straps
and thong heel binding. With this arrangement one does not have good
control of his ski and stands the chance of a chafe on the 'tendon
Achillis.' Owing to the last consideration many had decided to go
with toe strap alone as we did in the _Discovery_. This brought into
my mind the possibility of using the iron cross bar and snap heel
strap of the Huitfeldt on a suitable overshoe.
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