The term of this stay must be left entirely to your judgment, observing that whilst it is highly undesirable for you to miss the latest possible news, it would be more undesirable for you to be caught in the ice and forced to winter.
Concerning this matter I can only give you information as to what had happened in previous years:
Last year the Bays froze permanently on March 24.
Last year the Sound froze permanently on May 7 or 8.
By the Bays I mean the water south of Hut Point, inside Turtle Back
Island, south of Glacier Tongue, inside the islands north of Glacier
Tongue, and, I think, the western shores of the Sound.
The following gives the ice movements in the Sound in more detail:
March 24.-25. Ice forming and opening with leads.
" 26. Sea clear.
" 27. Strait apparently freezing.
" 28 (early). Ice over whole Sound.
" 29. All Ice gone.
" 30. Freezing over.
April 1. Ice out, etc.
This sort of thing continued till May, with lengthening intervals, but never more than three days of frozen sea.
The dates of freezing over in 1902 were approximately the same, except that the Sound continued to open beyond the Glacier Tongue throughout the winter.
In 1903 the Bays did not break out, but the Sound was freezing and opening in March and April as in the other years. I think it is certain that the old ice lately broken as well as all the broken young ice drifts to the west, and that a ship on the western side of the Sound would be pretty certainly entangled at this season of the year.
I think it more than probable that you will find all the old ice broken out when you return from the north, and the Bay south of Cape Armitage completely open.