1911] ANTARCTIC EGGS 173 
that summer. In the evening Gran and I planted his sea-kale 
seeds on a patch on mossy soil inside a granite hollow. It 
seemed a bit wet, but Gran assured us it would be up in a week 
and eatable in a month! Our mouths watered at the thought 
of cabbages, though I don’t think we others were optimistic. 
The ship was due to pick us up in about a month to take 
us 200 miles north to Terra Nova Bay, and so of course we 
thought of a sweepstake as to its date of arrival. Unfortunately 
we couldn’t decide on a stake. Money was no use. We should 
get any food we liked when we got on board. ‘Gran suggested 
the first bath for the winter. But this though very sensible didn’t 
catch on, for as we have no clean clothes probably we won’t 
waste time on it!’ 
The next few days, sledging on the sea ice was impossible, 
so I decided to survey and collect near our headquarters. I took 
angles for the latitude and longitude of Cape Geology (obtain- 
ing 162° 49’) and was able to corroborate our sledgemeter 
record as to the correct position of Granite Harbour. Deben- 
ham and Gran climbed to the highest point of the Rendezvous 
Bluff and found its height to be 1624 feet. They saw open 
water off the harbour. 
The skuas now commenced to lay. Gran said that he got 
his first egg from a nest half full of water, and declared that 
the bird looked much relieved when her uncomfortable charge 
was removed. Two of the nests which I saw seemed to show 
faint signs of intelligence on the part of the owners. In place 
of a mere hole in the wet gravel one had about twenty long 
feathers arranged round the edge—while the other was improved 
by the addition of some dried moss which the bird had picked 
from a foot away. I am afraid this intellectual activity on their 
part did not preserve their eggs! 
We boiled four and I tasted my first Antarctic egg. They 
are the.size of a small hen’s egg, brown in colour with black, 
tawny and buff flecks on them. They have not so much taste 
as those of the common fowl and the albumen is translucent and 
bluish. They were very good and I could have managed six, 
though the Polar record of sixteen was I felt sure beyond my 
attainment. 
The movement of the Mackay Tongue was an interesting 
problem. The sea ice was puckered into great pressure ridges 
