The remarkably fast ion heating observed in highcurrent stabilized gas discharges naay be due partly to an ion relaxation process described by Schluter. To get an idea of how fast the compression mode energy can be given to the ions, Schluter's expression for the ion temperature e-folding time is used. In Zeta, for ion temperatures of 1, 10, and 100 ev, e-folding time values of 0.05, 0.005, and 0.1 msec were obtained. Corresponding values in Sceptre were 0.3, 0.01, and 0.01 msec. (W.D.M.)