of
erratics and many examples of polishing and grooving. The rock was very
rotten, and in many places, especially about the penguin rookeries,
there were collections of soil. Two deep gorges cut through the island
from north-west to south-east, in both of which there were small ponds
of fresh water.

The most marked feature was the wonderful abundance of bird life, for
almost all the birds frequenting the shores of the continent were found
nesting there. Adelie penguins were in greatest numbers. Besides
the large rookery on one of the smaller islets, there were numerous
rookeries of fifty to one hundred birds each on Haswell Island. In most
cases the penguins made their nests on the rock itself, but, failing
this, had actually settled on snow-drifts, where they presented a
peculiar sight, as the heat of their bodies having caused them to sink
in the snow, their heads alone were visible above the surface. One bird
was observed carrying an egg on the dorsal surface of his feet as the
Emperor penguins do. Feathers were scattered broadcast around each
rookery. These result from the numerous fights which occur and are also
partly derived from the bare patch of skin at the lower part of the
abdomen which provides the necessary heat for incubation when the bird
is sitting. Most of the birds had two eggs in a well-advanced stage
of incubation, and it was a difficult task to find a sufficient number
fresh enough for culinary purposes. Attached to each rookery was a pair
of skua gulls, who swooped down and quickly flew off with any eggs left
for a moment untended.

The Emperor penguins had their rookery on the floe, about a mile
from the island. The birds covered four to five acres, but there were
undoubted signs that a much larger area had been occupied. We estimated
the numbers to be seven thousand five hundred, the great majority being
young birds. These were well grown, most of them standing as high as the
shoulders of the adults. They were all very fat, covered by a grey down,
slightly darker on the dorsal than on the ventral surface, with dark
tails and a black, straight beak. The eyes were surrounded by a ring
of grey plumage, and this again by a black band which extended over the
skull to the root of the beak. Thus the markings on the young do not
correspond with those of the adults. A few of the larger chicks
had commenced to moult, the change of plumage being observed on the
flippers.

Daily we watched large numbers