During the two years spent by the Discovery in the south polar ice, seals and penguins formed staple articles of the diet of the men. Though the flesh of both of these creatures has a strong and peculiar flavor, it was found to be an agreeable change from pemican and other preserved material. So vigorous were the men's appetites, stimulated by the excessive cold, that when they labored hard sometimes seven meals were served daily.
Because of the thick layer of fat covering their bodies, penguins were used as fuel when the coal began to give out. Penguins are strange, interesting sea fowls having an inquisitive and fearless nature. At one of the rocky shore rookeries millions of these grotesque birds were seen.
The type of penguin found here is a very handsome bird, decked out in rather gay colors, having a jet black head, bluish-gray back and wings, a yellow breast and bright spot of orange on the neck, and an orange-colored lower bill. As though proud of his multicolored dress he walks with slow and majestic step. His height is about four feet and his average weight eighty-five pounds. He makes free use of his voice which is loud and shrill. Whenever a group of penguins see an object that excites their curiosity they will stand around it in a circle and gaze at it intently. Lieutenant Shackleton had a graphophone as a part of his equipment, and whenever it was used, during the season when penguins were about, they used to gather around the instrument by the hundreds, seeming to be quite as much interested as his human listeners.
When all other birds flee at the approach of the antarctic winter the eccentric penguin defies the cold and hatches its single egg in the dead of winter, with the thermometer ranging from eighteen to seventy degrees below zero. It does this by carrying the egg between its legs, resting it on the back of the foot while a fold of heavily feathered loose skin completely covers it up.
After the chick is hatched it takes the place of the egg and is carried around in this queer receptacle. When the chick wants food it utters a cry. Thereupon the parent bends its neck down, and the little one thrusts its head into the parental mouth to help itself to regurgitated food. The adult fowls of both sexes are fond of nursing the chickens and frequently quarrel over the possession of the little ones, often with fatal results to the younglings. Over half of the chicks die or are killed by kindness.
The expedition to the antarctic commanded by Lieutenant Ernest Shackleton must always be considered one of the most important among those fitted out for the work of polar research. Shackleton had been a member of the Scott expedition and therefore was well acquainted with the character of the work. The members of the staff, about twenty-five in number, were selected with great care, and the results of the expedition demonstrated Lieutenant Shackleton's wisdom.
The Nimrod, a wooden steamship built for seal hunting, was purchased and equipped for the expedition. She was a small vessel, scarcely more than one hundred feet in length. Her foremast carried square sails; her main and mizzen masts were schooner-rigged. Under steam her speed did not exceed six knots. The equipment included a generous outfit of scientific instruments, a supply of dogs and sledges, ten Manchurian or "Shetland" ponies, and a gasoline motor-car. The vessel was equipped at Cowes, England, but made her final start from Lyttleton, New Zealand, New Year's Day, 1908. In order to save her supply of coal for future use she was towed to the antarctic circle.
The following winter months, May to September, were spent on Ross Island, near the winter quarters of the Discovery, in McMurdo Bay, about thirty degrees south of New Zealand. This bay, or sound, forms a curve in the shore line of Victoria Land, the coast of which is the best known part of the antarctic regions. Up to the present time it is the most accessible entrance to south circumpolar regions known; it is also the most convenient location for winter quarters, being only two thousand miles from New Zealand.
In the following March a party of six—David, Mawson, Mackay, Adams, Marshall, and Brocklehurst—prepared for the ascent of Mount Erebus, the volcano, then active, discovered by Ross and named after one of his ships. The crater rim was only a few miles distant, and during the first three days the party could be seen from the camp by means of a powerful telescope—tiny black specks struggling up the ice-clad slopes. Three craters were discovered, the youngest and highest of which was found to be thirteen thousand three hundred and fifty feet above sea level.[3] During the ascent the party nearly perished in a gale which blew their tents into tatters. The crater rampart was finally reached, however, and a number of excellent photographs were made.
During the entire stay at Ross Island the steam column from the crater furnished the means whereby the direction of the upper currents of air might be instantly noted, and the condition of activity did not differ materially from that observed in Stromboli. When the barometer was low the steam column was heavier and denser; the glow of light was also brighter. With a high barometer, on the contrary, the conditions were reversed, the steam column was insignificant and the glow was scarcely visible. As a rule, the ascending column of steam was projected three thousand feet or more before it was caught by the upper air current. Measurements showed the principal crater to be half a mile in diameter and nine hundred feet deep. Great deposits of sulphur and pumice were observed.