CHAPTER X 
IN WINTER QUARTERS: MODERN STYLE 
Monday, May 15. — The wind has been strong from the 
north all day — about 30 miles an hour. A bank of stratus 
cloud about 6000 or 7000 feet (measured by Erebus) has 
been passing rapidly overhead towards the north ; it is 
nothing new to find the overlying layers of air moving in 
opposite directions, but it is strange that the phenomenon 
is so persistent. Simpson has frequently remarked as a 
great feature of weather conditions here the seeming 
reluctance ot the air to ' mix ' — the fact seems to be the 
explanation of many curious fluctuations of temperature. 
Went for a short walk, but it was not pleasant. Wilson 
gave an interesting lecture on penguins. He explained 
the primitive characteristics in the arrangement of 
feathers on wings and body, the absence of primaries and 
secondaries or bare tracts ; the modification of the muscles 
of the wings and in the structure of the feet (the metatarsal 
joint). He pointed out (and the subsequent discussion 
seemed to support him) that these birds probably branched 
at a very early stage of bird life — coming pretty directly 
from the lizard bird Archaeopteryx of the Jurassic age. 
Fossils of giant penguins of Eocene and Miocene ages 
