224 British Antarctic Expedition. 
We saw comparatively few of the Emperor 
Penguins (A. Forsteri), and were not able to find 
their nesting-places. We came across odd ones in 
the pack at intervals, and not before the Antarctic 
autumn of 1900 did we see several together. At 
the end of November we saw more than twenty (?) 
at a time. They were then walking slowly into 
Robertson Bay. I secured ten of these, and kept 
them for some time alive at Camp Ridley. .They 
came in shoals, swimming just like the small 
penguins, with whom they, however, did not mix. 
Undoubtedly they were on their way to their old 
nesting-places, and some of them had pretty large 
eggs inside them. Their stomachs generally con- 
tained crustacea, very small fish, and a quantity of 
pebbles. 
After the middle of November dark vapour clouds 
were continually to be seen towards the eastern horizon. 
On November 22nd the temperature was + 18. 
I went with the doctor towards the cape and found 
a large sheet of open water. There was a strong 
current running with a speed of from five to six knots. 
Shoals of penguins were jumping about in the open 
water. The ice evidently wore rapidly at this time 
The current increased in strength perceptibly from 
day to day. It did not seem probable that those 
abnormally violent gales would blow again before 
the autumn, the summer being so far advanced. As 
the bulk of the immense ice-pack still remained, with 
very small interruptions of open water as far as the 
eye could reach, we began seriously to think of the 
possibility of there being exceptionally unfavourable 
ice conditions, and that the .SowzZerz Cross, if all was 
