The period of our stay here seems to promise to lengthen.  It is trying—­trying—­but we can live, which is something.  I should not be greatly surprised if we had to wait till May.  Several skuas were about the camp yesterday.  I have seen none to-day.

Two rorquals were rising close to Hut Point this morning—­although the ice is nowhere thick it was strange to see them making for the open leads and thin places to blow.

Friday, March 31.—­I studied the wind blowing along the ridge yesterday and came to the conclusion that a comparatively thin shaft of air was moving along the ridge from Erebus.  On either side of the ridge it seemed to pour down from the ridge itself—­there was practically no wind on the sea ice off Pram Point, and to the westward of Hut Point the frost smoke was drifting to the N.W.  The temperature ranges about zero.  It seems to be almost certain that the perpetual wind is due to the open winter.  Meanwhile the sea refuses to freeze over.

Wright pointed out the very critical point which zero temperature represents in the freezing of salt water, being the freezing temperature of concentrated brine—­a very few degrees above or below zero would make all the difference to the rate of increase of the ice thickness.

Yesterday the ice was 8 inches in places east of Cape Armitage and 6 inches in our Bay:  it was said to be fast to the south of the Glacier Tongue well beyond Turtleback Island and to the north out of the Islands, except for a strip of water immediately north of the Tongue.

We are good for another week in pretty well every commodity and shall then have to reduce luxuries.  But we have plenty of seal meat, blubber and biscuit, and can therefore remain for a much longer period if needs be.  Meanwhile the days are growing shorter and the weather colder.

Saturday, April 1.—­The wind yesterday was blowing across the Ridge from the top down on the sea to the west:  very little wind on the eastern slopes and practically none at Pram Point.  A seal came up in our Bay and was killed.  Taylor found a number of fish frozen into the sea ice—­he says there are several in a small area.

The pressure ridges in Pram Point Bay are estimated by Wright to have set up about 3 feet.  This ice has been ‘in’ about ten days.  It is now safe to work pretty well anywhere south of Hut Point.

Went to Third Crater (next Castle Rock) yesterday.  The ice seems to be holding in the near Bay from a point near Hulton Rocks to Glacier; also in the whole of the North Bay except for a tongue of open water immediately north of the Glacier.

The wind is the same to-day as yesterday, and the open water apparently not reduced by a square yard.  I’m feeling impatient.