Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/75

along to this point the ice foot would have given us no difficulty at all, but we had left it behind at the man-hole. [A whole procession of Emperors came round just as they were coming back from the floe.]

The small number of Emperor penguins collected here at this time is surprising. There were not more than 100 birds, and without forcing all of them to abandon their eggs it was impossible to guess how many had laid or were incubating. It looked to me as though every fourth or fifth bird had an egg, but this is only a guess and may be quite wrong, though I am certain that there were more birds without eggs than with eggs. Why there should be so few birds here this July, when there were so many more here in September and October ten years ago, is difficult to understand. The examination of the three eggs we have brought back with us may throw some light on the question. They may have only just begun to lay, and these may have been the earliest arrivals. Others may yet arrive in numbers and lay this year.

Another possible explanation is that the ice has not remained in, and that the rookery has been dissipated lately; and some support is lent to this possibility by the absence of all snowdrifts on to the sea ice from the ice foot.

I see no way of deciding this question except by another visit to the rookery—either this year in September or October—or next year, preferably in August. The most valuable work probably could be done in August, and a visit would be much facilitated if by any possibility some supply of oil and food could be left at the Adélie