THE EMPEROR PENGUIN. 9 



All these warnings were an open book to the Emperor Penguins, and if one 

 knew the truth there probably were many others too. They were in consequence 

 unsettled, and although the ice had not yet started moving, the Emperor Penguins 

 had ; a long file was moving out from the bay to the open ice, where a pack of some 

 one or two hundred had already collected about two miles out at the edge of a re-frozen 

 crack. For an hour or more that afternoon we watched this exodus proceeding, and 

 returned to camp more than ever convinced that bad weather might be expected. Nor 

 were we disappointed, for on the next day we woke to a southerly gale and smother of 

 snow and drift, which effectually prevented any one of us from leaving our camp at all. 

 This continued without intermission all day and night till the following morning, 

 when the weather cleared sufficiently to allow us to reach the edge of the cliff which 

 overlooked the rookery. 



The change here was immense. Eoss Sea was open water for nearly thirty 

 miles ; a long line of white pack ice was just visible on the horizon from where we 

 stood, some 800 to 900 feet above the sea. Large sheets of ice were still going 

 out and di'ifting to the north, and the migration of the Emperors was in full 

 swing. There were again two companies waiting on the ice at the actual water's 

 edge, with some hundred more tailing out in single file to join them. The birds were 

 waiting far out at the edge of the open water, as far as it was possible for them to 

 walk, on a projecting piece of ice, the very next piece that would break away and 

 drift to the north. The line of tracks in the snow along which the birds had gone the 

 day before was now cut off short at the edge of the open water, showing that they had 

 gone, and under the ice cliffs there was an appreciable diminution in the number of 

 Emperors left, hardly more than half remaining of all that we had seen there six days 

 before. 



The following day, the 24th of October, we were again confined to our camp and 

 sleeping bags with a very heavy blizzard from the south, but on the 25th, we made an 

 effort to reach the edge of the cliffs, and saw once more this method of migration going 

 on. There was again on the extreme edge of the fast ice a large number of waiting birds , 

 and a long file of others going out to join them. I believe that as yet none but the 

 unemployed had gone, for they had all a mile or two to walk to the edge of the open 

 water and all were walking freely ; their movements being very different when they have 

 a chick between the legs. The nursing contingent of the rookery was still huddled under 

 the ice cliffs, sheltered from the worst of the storm, but markedly reduced in numbers. 



We had ourselves some difficulty this time in regaining our tent, for the storm 

 came on with fury, and the air was so thick with snow that we could see nothing 

 but what was at our feet. We had, as a precaution before starting, laid out a line of ski 

 poles, skis, ice axes and a length of Alpine rope across the direction of our path to help 

 us to again find our tent, but had we not worn crampons, which bit boles in the hard ice 

 and gave us marks to follow, we should have had great difficulty in finding our way 

 back that day or night, for all marks in softer snow were immediately swept away. 



^^ 



