IN WINTER QUARTERS WITH CAPTAIN SCOTT 271 



Crozier Rookery, and to study the habits of the Emperor 

 penguins during the nesting season. No one had ever seen 

 them nesting, nor had any eggs, except long-abandoned speci- 

 mens, ever been found. Wilson hoped to get embryo chicks, 

 and thus study the early stages of these birds, which in some 

 ways are the most primitive existing, and which therefore 

 exhibit features linking them to the reptiles. 



They took two sledges, pulling a heavy load of 253-3 lbs. 

 per man. Numerous bamboos, specimen bottles, penguin- 

 nets, special clothing, etc., accounted for the load ; but they 

 proposed to be absent five weeks and would need extra pro- 

 visions in view of the extremely low temperatures. No such 

 trip had ever been made before. No one realized what they 

 would have to encounter, and I hope no one will ever again 

 attempt to do anything so close to the confines of human 

 endurance. 



Nelson, Gran, and I accompanied them nearly to Glacier 

 Tongue. We could just make out the black crags against 

 the white snow. I had a bet with Bill that we could see 

 Little Razorback Isle. I lost, for it was the 500-foot cliff of 

 Turk's Head, and this was a pity. I was so sure, that I bet 

 him the small amount of £40,000,000 ! 



" When we stopped I called for three cheers for the Cheery 

 Winter Knight, the Short Winter Knight, and the Long 

 Winter Knight. When they saw that I meant £ Knight ' (and 

 not the surrounding gloom !) they laughed muchly, and we 

 left them cheery." 



In the evenings we went in for games of various sorts — 

 though never cards, for some unknown reason. Captain 

 Scott and Atkinson used to play a couple of games of chess 

 each evening. Nelson was our " star performer " at any game 

 of skill, and could beat any of the others at chess. I should 

 think Debenham and I probably played most chess. Wright 

 and Simpson occasionally indulged, and were of about the 

 same class. Oates and Debenham were fond of backgammon. 

 Evans, Gran, and I played Matador a great deal, until I found 

 myself getting beaten with monotonous regularity, when I 

 decided that dominoes wasn't an intellectual game, and stuck 

 to chess ! 



"We have just been discussing Jules Verne on the shoot- 

 ing of bears with mercury bullets ! The temperature is now 



