August 3rd

Sunday. We were waked up last night at 2:30 by the tent pulling and flapping as tho' it would be blown away. Mr. Cushing and I went out to look around, and found a strong S.E. wind blowing. It was fortunately quite warm (58.5 degrees) so that we were not chilled. We tightened the stays of the tent, which had become very slack by [drying?] yesterday, and put big stones on the pegs to prevent them from being blown pulled out. the bay was full of ice, and the tide very high, within 50 ft of our tent; it is about the new moon and the southerly wind also helped to make the tide unusually high. It was The wind caused quite a strain on the tent, and if we had not put a truss under our ridge-pole some days ago, I doubt if it would have stood it. Mr. Cushing and I were out about an hour and then returned to bed. The wind continued very heavy all night. This morning we found that one of the end stays had pulled its peg several inches thro' the sand, although the peg was covered with large rocks. The wind also blew away the dial of the self-recording thermometer so that the whole week's record of this instrument is lost. this morning the inlet was closely packed with ice, small and large, and during the day many large bergs have broken off. The clouds were thick early in the morning but should the sun shone brightly about ten o'clock, and I took my camera and made three exposures on the ice-front. I also measured the height of the ice front with the Gurly transit and found it varying from 150 to 240 ft. In the afternoon, Casement, Cushing, Adams and I started to set flags out from eastern side of Glacier. Before we had gone far, Casement dropped his axe into what was apparently a puddle, but what proved to be so deep that the axe sank in it beyond recovery. Mr. Cushing lent Casement his axe and went back. We found the first three flags and rest them. We also set a fourth flag, probably about as far out as the original fourth flag.

The Elder is overdue three or four days. Possibly the bad weather or the large quantity of ice has kept her out of Glacier Bay.