104 



PLATE LIIL THE EMPEROR PENGUIN ROOKERY. 



From a photograph by R. W. SKELTON (Sk. 184, \- plate), Oct. 18, 1902 ; looking 

 S. from the sea-ice. 



This, the only rookery of its kind at present known, was discovered by Lieut. - 

 Engineer Skelton, R.N., at Cape Crozier in October 1902. His report runs as 

 follows : 



" Arriving at the edge of the Barrier, we looked directly down on what we at 

 once realised was an Emperor Penguin rookery, as several dead young ones could 

 be seen. The rookery is on sea-ice in a bay formed by high rocky cliffs on the 

 West, and a sort of indentation in the face of the Barrier, or in what may be 

 called the ridge-ice, on the East. The ice formed early in the winter in 

 this bay is evidently held in during the whole of the winter, but a very 

 short way out across the entrance the ice is continually going out. The number of 

 adult birds using the rookery I should place at about four hundred. We counted 

 two hundred and fifty in the rookery at one time, and others were constantly coming 

 and going to the open water, engaged in fishing. The number of chicks alive was 

 about thirty, and about eighty dead." 



On the right is the land and the land-ice of the eastern extremity of Ross 

 Island. The tumbled mass on the left is the result of the movement of the great 

 ice-sheet along the land. 



Notwithstanding its bulk, five gigantic pressure ridges are upheaved in lines 

 running at first parallel with the shore, but continuing for fifty miles to the S., 

 before they disappear ; while at the point of actual contact a chaos of huge ice- 

 blocks is forced by an irresistible pressure northwards along the shore to pass the 

 rocky headland. 



