6 EDWARD A. WILSON. 



It must be remembered that its distance from our winter quarters was close on 

 50 miles, and that in early spring a sledge journey to cover the distance there and back 

 necessitated considerable forethought and preparation. For one thing, the surface snow 

 was liable to give one very heavy travelling, and for another, the number of hours of 

 daylight in September were few, and the day's march therefore short, while camping 

 had to be managed after dark by the light of a piece of candle. The temperatures 

 moreover were severe to a degree which had never before been experienced in extended 

 journeys, and ranged sometimes for ten days together from anything below 30 F. 

 and 40 F. down to 63 F. The first point therefore in the following year was to 

 decide upon the earliest practicable date on which it would be wise to make a start, 

 and this we had to judge from the following fact which was all that we possessed 

 namely, that on October 18th of the previous year there were chicks of apparently ten 

 to fourteen days' growth. 



We had no knowledge of the length of this penguin's incubation, but from 

 Professor Moseley, quoting Goodrich, on the incubation period of the King Penguin we 

 had the limit of seven weeks given for our guidance. If anything, the Emperor should 

 have a longer incubation period than the King first, because it is the bigger bird 

 and the period of incubation is said to vary with the size of the bird ; and second, 

 because the temperature of the surrounding air is very distinctly lower than it is in the 

 regions where the King Penguins breed ; and this also has been said to prolong the 

 time necessary for the purpose. So, as the first week of September was the earliest 

 date at which there was light enough for travelling, we decided to make a start upon 

 the 7th. The party consisted of Lieut. Royds, myself, and four seamen, with two tents 

 and sledges. We believed that if we arrived from a month to six weeks earlier than in 

 the previous year we should certainly find eggs, incubated probably, but still unhatched. 



On September 12th, when we arrived, we made our way to the sea ice across 

 the pressure ridges full of hopeful anticipation, for we could already see that the birds 

 were there in large numbers. What then was our dismay when we found that we 

 were again far too late for eggs, and that every one of them was hatched. Again and 

 again we examined " sitting" birds and found that they had young ones but not eggs. 

 We sadly realized the error we had made in calculating the age of the October chicks, 

 and finding no eggs, began to supply ourselves with a series of the nestlings. In 

 collecting such, however, as were dead and frozen on the ice, we soon came to a 

 spot where we could see that some catastrophe had befallen the breeding colony, for we 

 found no less than fourteen eggs deserted, lying loose upon the ice, all frozen, and 

 many burst by the freezing, but some still perfect and uncracked. 



It was clear that there had been a fall of ice from the cliffs under shelter of which 

 the penguins had been quietly sitting with their eggs a month or two before. That this 

 heavy fall had crushed some we could guess, for it had crushed some eggs as well, but 

 the birds that had escaped had dropped their eggs in terror and had bolted. It was 

 strange, however, that whereas some that we found must have been frozen fresh soon 



