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 



