course, did not mean that freezing was not going on continuously. On the
contrary, the chilling was no doubt accelerated, but the bulk of the
ice was carried off to the north as fast as it was formed. Quantities,
however, remained as ground-ice, anchored to the kelp and stones on the
bottom. Gazing down through the clear waters one saw a white, mamillated
sheath covering the jungle of giant seaweed, recalling a forest after a
heavy snowfall. The ice, instead of being a dead weight bearing down
the branches, tended to float, and, when accumulated in large masses,
sometimes succeeded in rising to the surface, uprooting and lifting
great lengths of seaweed with it. One branching stem, found floating in
the harbour, measured eighteen feet in length.

Whenever a temporary calm intervened, a skin of ice quickly appeared
over the whole surface of the water. In the early stages, this formation
consisted of loose, blade-like crystals, previously floating freely
below the surface and rising by their own buoyancy. At the surface, if
undisturbed, they soon became cemented together. For example, during a
calm interval on April 6, within the interval of an hour, an even crust,
one inch thick, covered the sea. But the wind returned before the ice
was sufficiently strong to resist it, and it all broke up and drifted
away to the north, except a piece which remained wedged firmly between
the sides of the boat harbour.

In the calm weather, abundant "worms" freely swimming, jelly-fish,
pteropods and small fish were observed. Traps were lowered along the
edge of the harbour-ice and dredgings were made in every possible
situation. The bulk of the biological collecting was effected under
circumstances in which Hunter and Laseron might well have given up work
in disgust. For instance, I noted in my diary that on May 16, with an
off shore wind of forty-three miles per hour, they and several others
were dredging from the edge of the slippery bay-ice. The temperature at
the time was -2 degrees F.

During April the head of the boat harbour froze over permanently, the
ice reaching a thickness of eighteen inches in ten days. By that time
it was strong enough to be suitable for a tide-gauge. This was one of
Bage's charges, destined to take him out for many months in fair and
foul weather.

There were several occasions in April when the velocity of the wind
exceeded ninety miles an hour. On the evening of the 26th, the wind
slackened, and for p