562 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



panions" ; and in time all the most noble birds would be 

 dead. What they really do is to try and persuade a com- 

 panion of weaker mind to plunge : railing this, they hastily 

 pass a conscription act and push him over. And then — 

 bang, helter-skelter, in go all the rest. 



They take turns in sitting on their eggs, and after many 

 days the fathers may be seen waddling down towards the 

 sea with their shirt-fronts muddied, their long trick done. 

 It may be a fortnight before they return, well-fed, clean, 

 pleased with life, and with a grim determination to relieve 

 their wives, to do their job. Sometimes they are met by 

 others going to bathe. They stop and pass the time of day. 

 Well ! Perhaps it would be more pleasant, and what does 

 a day or two matter anyhow. They turn ; clean and dirty 

 alike are off to the seaside again. This is when they say, 

 "The women are splendid." 



Life is too strenuous for them to have any use for the 

 virtues of brotherly love, good works, charity and bene- 

 volence. When they mate the best thief wins : when they 

 nest the best pair of thieves hatch out their eggs. In a long 

 unbroken stream, which stretches down below the sea-ice 

 horizon, they march in from the open sea. Some are walk- 

 ing on their human feet: others tobogganing upon their 

 shiny white breasts. After their long walk they must have 

 a sleep, and then the gentlemen make their way into the 

 already crowded rookery to find them wives. But first a 

 suitor must find, or steal, a pebble, for such are the pen- 

 guin jewels: they are of lava, black, russet or grey, with 

 almond-shaped crystals bedded in them. They are rare and 

 of all sizes, but that which is most valued is the size of a 

 pigeon's egg. Armed with one of these he courts his maid, 

 laying it at her feet. If accepted he steals still more stones : 

 she guards them jealously, taking in the meantime any safe 

 opportunity to pick others from under her nearest neigh- 

 bours. Any penguin which is unable to fight and steal 

 successfully fails to make a good high nest, or loses it when 

 made. Then comes a blizzard, and after that a thaw : for 

 it thaws sometimes right down by the sea-shore where the 

 Adelies have their nurseries. The eggs of the strong and 



