579 Nine mile walk with Languary. We went out to the second point beyond the big valley, the same place which we reached on 3 November. Ice is in wonderfully fine condition here, we wish that we might have sledging like this and weather like that of the past five days for our dash across Melville Bay! Allen put an eight inch long pro- foscis onto his sheepskin face mask today. He tried it on a walk this evening but the weather was too calm and not cold enough to test its value. The mask is a funny looking thing and seems hardly practicable. Finished my long "last letter" to Mee- 2 January. Sunday. Clear, cloudless, calm with an occasional light "air". Temp. min - 22°; 9a. -18°; 2p. -16° Ice. 28"