15 this is the signal for the guests to depart therafter. Instead we adjourned to the easy chairs at the other end of the room and kept up a steady flow of conversation until about 10.15 PM when we departed. I was back in quarters and soon in bed. November 9. Up about 6.30 AM to go to the beach and thence to breakfast. Bright sunny morning with quite a strong cold wind so I have stayed in and am reading Hillary's account of his part in Fuchs' Antarctic Traverse in the SGY. In the afternoon flew in helicopter to Bonney Lake in Taylor Dry Valley. Very black sandy gravelly soil with a few granite boulders and smaller fragments of black dolerite. Picked up a few fragments which may have small lichens in them. Very poor collecting. After an hour or so flew across to Cape Royds Shackletons hut 1907-8. Rocks similar to those of Cape Evans but crystals smaller. Found nothing although I searched diligently in biting wind. Watched a skuas quill and the rookery of Adélie penguins a short time. I was glad when the heli- copter was ready to fly back to base. On the way I saw several seals basking in the sun on the bay ice. Seals are said to be late in arriving this year.