The Worst Journey in the World (51 page)

I resort to Mr. Brown, who ushers me into the presence of the Chief
Custodian, a man of scientific aspect, with two manners: one, affably
courteous, for a Person of Importance (I guess a Naturalist Rothschild at
least) with whom he is conversing, and the other, extraordinarily
offensive even for an official man of science, for myself.

I announce myself with becoming modesty as the bearer of the penguins'
eggs, and proffer them. The Chief Custodian takes them into custody
without a word of thanks, and turns to the Person of Importance to
discuss them. I wait. The temperature of my blood rises. The conversation
proceeds for what seems to me a considerable period. Suddenly the Chief
Custodian notices my presence and seems to resent it.

CHIEF CUSTODIAN. You needn't wait.

HEROIC EXPLORER. I should like to have a receipt for the eggs, if you
please.

CHIEF CUSTODIAN. It is not necessary: it is all right. You needn't wait.

HEROIC EXPLORER. I should like to have a receipt.

But by this time the Chief Custodian's attention is again devoted wholly
to the Person of Importance. Feeling that to persist in overhearing their
conversation would be an indelicacy, the Heroic Explorer politely leaves
the room, and establishes himself on a chair in a gloomy passage outside,
where he wiles away the time by rehearsing in his imagination how he will
tell off the Chief Custodian when the Person of Importance retires. But
this the Person of Importance shows no sign of doing, and the Explorer's
thoughts and intentions become darker and darker. As the day wears on,
minor officials, passing to and from the Presence, look at him doubtfully
and ask his business. The reply is always the same, "I am waiting for a
receipt for some penguins' eggs." At last it becomes clear from the
Explorer's expression that what he is really waiting for is not to take a
receipt but to commit murder. Presumably this is reported to the destined
victim: at all events the receipt finally comes; and the Explorer goes
his way with it, feeling that he has behaved like a perfect gentleman,
but so very dissatisfied with that vapid consolation that for hours he
continues his imaginary rehearsals of what he would have liked to have
done to that Custodian (mostly with his boots) by way of teaching him
manners.

Some time after this I visited the Natural History Museum with Captain
Scott's sister. After a slight preliminary skirmish in which we convinced
a minor custodian that the specimens brought by the expedition from the
Antarctic did not include the moths we found preying on some of them,
Miss Scott expressed a wish to see the penguins' eggs. Thereupon the
minor custodians flatly denied that any such eggs were in existence or in
their possession. Now Miss Scott was her brother's sister; and she showed
so little disposition to take this lying down that I was glad to get her
away with no worse consequences than a profanely emphasized threat on my
part that if we did not receive ample satisfaction in writing within
twenty-four hours as to the safety of the eggs England would reverberate
with the tale.

The ultimatum was effectual; and due satisfaction was forthcoming in
time; but I was relieved when I learnt later on that they had been
entrusted to Professor Assheton for the necessary microscopic
examination. But he died before he could approach the task; and the eggs
passed into the hands of Professor Cossar Ewart of Edinburgh University.

His report is as follows:

"It was a great disappointment to Dr. Wilson that no Emperor Penguin
embryos were obtained during the cruise of the Discovery. But though
embryos were conspicuous by their absence in the Emperor eggs brought
home by the National Antarctic Expedition, it is well to bear in mind
that the naturalists on board the Discovery learned much about the
breeding habits of the largest living member of the ancient penguin
family. Amongst other things it was ascertained (1) that in the case of
the Emperor, as in the King Penguin, the egg during the period of
incubation rests on the upper surface of the feet protected and kept in
position by a fold of skin from the lower breast; and (2) that in the
case of the Emperor the whole process of incubation is carried out on sea
ice during the coldest and darkest months of the antarctic winter.

"After devoting much time to the study of penguins Dr. Wilson came to the
conclusion that Emperor embryos would throw new light on the origin and
history of birds, and decided that if he again found his way to the
Antarctic he would make a supreme effort to visit an Emperor rookery
during the breeding season. When, and under what conditions, the Cape
Crozier rookery was eventually visited and Emperor eggs secured is
graphically told in The Winter Journey. The question now arises, Has 'the
weirdest bird's-nesting expedition that has ever been made' added
appreciably to our knowledge of birds?

"It is admitted that birds are descended from bipedal reptiles which
flourished some millions of years ago—reptiles in build not unlike the
kangaroo. From Archaeopteryx of Jurassic times we know primeval birds had
teeth, three fingers with claws on each hand, and a long lizard-like tail
provided with nearly twenty pairs of well-formed true feathers. But
unfortunately neither this lizard-tailed bird, nor yet the fossil birds
found in America, throw any light on the origin of feathers.
Ornithologists and others who have devoted much time to the study of
birds have as a rule assumed that feathers were made out of scales, that
the scales along the margin of the hand and forearm and along each side
of the tail were elongated, frayed and otherwise modified to form the
wing and tail quills, and that later other scales were altered to provide
a coat capable of preventing loss of heat. But as it happens, a study of
the development of feathers affords no evidence that they were made out
of scales. There are neither rudiments of scales nor feathers in very
young bird embryos. In the youngest of the three Emperor embryos there
are, however, feather rudiments in the tail region,—the embryo was
probably seven or eight days old—but in the two older embryos there are
a countless number of feather rudiments, i.e. of minute pimples known
as papillae.

"In penguins as in many other birds there are two distinct crops of
feather papillae, viz.: a crop of relatively large papillae which develop
into prepennae, the forerunners of true feathers (pennae), and a crop of
small papillae which develop into preplumulae, the forerunners of true
down feathers (plumulae).

"In considering the origin of feathers we are not concerned with the true
feathers (pennae), but with the nestling feathers (prepennae), and more
especially with the papillae from which the prepennae are developed. What
we want to know is, Do the papillae which in birds develop into the
first generation of feathers correspond to the papillae which in lizards
develop into scales?

"The late Professor Assheton, who undertook the examination of some of
the material brought home by the Terra Nova, made a special study of the
feather papillae of the Emperor Penguin embryos from Cape Crozier.
Drawings were made to indicate the number, size and time of appearance of
the feather papillae, but unfortunately in the notes left by the
distinguished embryologist there is no indication whether the feather
papillae were regarded as modified scale papillae or new creations
resulting from the appearance of special feather-forming factors in the
germ-plasm.

"When eventually the three Emperor Penguin embryos reached me that their
feather rudiments might be compared with the feather rudiments of other
birds, I noticed that in Emperor embryos the feather papillae appeared
before the scale papillae. Evidence of this was especially afforded by
the largest embryo, which had reached about the same stage in its
development as a 16-days goose embryo.

"In the largest Emperor embryo feather papillae occur all over the
hind-quarters and on the legs to within a short distance of the tarsal
joint. Beyond the tarsal joint even in the largest embryo no attempt had
been made to produce the papillae which in older penguin embryos
represent, and ultimately develop into, the scaly covering of the foot.
The absence of papillae on the foot implied either that the scale
papillae were fundamentally different from feather papillae or that for
some reason or other the development of the papillae destined to give
rise to the foot scales had been retarded. There is no evidence as far as
I can ascertain that in modern lizards the scale papillae above the
tarsal joint appear before the scale papillae beyond this joint.

"The absence of papillae below the tarsal joint in Emperor embryos,
together with the fact that in many birds each large feather papilla is
accompanied by two or more very small feather papillae, led me to study
the papillae of the limbs of other birds. The most striking results were
obtained from the embryos of Chinese geese in which the legs are
relatively longer than in penguins. In a 13-days goose embryo the whole
of the skin below and for some distance above the tarsal joint is quite
smooth, whereas the skin of the rest of the leg is studded with feather
papillae. On the other hand, in an 18-days goose embryo in which the
feather papillae of the legs have developed into filaments, each
containing a fairly well-formed feather, scale papillae occur not only on
the foot below and for some distance above the tarsal joint but also
between the roots of the feather filaments between the tarsal and the
knee joints. More important still, in a 20-days goose embryo a number of
the papillae situated between the feather filaments of the leg were
actually developing into scales each of which overlapped the root
(calamus) of a feather just as scales overlap the foot feathers in grouse
and other feather-footed birds.

"As in bird embryos there is no evidence that feather papillae ever
develop into scales or that scale papillae ever develop into feathers it
may be assumed that feather papillae are fundamentally different from
scale papillae, the difference presumably being due to the presence of
special factors in the germ-plasm. Just as in armadillos hairs are found
emerging from under the scales, in ancient birds as in the feet of some
modern birds the coat probably consisted of both feathers and scales. But
in course of time, owing perhaps to the growth of the scales being
arrested, the coat of the birds, instead of consisting throughout of
well-developed scales and small inconspicuous feathers, was almost
entirely made up of a countless number of downy feathers, well-developed
scales only persisting below the tarsal joint.

"If the conclusions arrived at with the help of the Emperor Penguin
embryos about the origin of feathers are justified, the worst journey in
the world in the interest of science was not made in vain."

Inside was pandemonium. Most men had gone to bed, and I have a blurred
memory of men in pyjamas and dressing-gowns getting hold of me and trying
to get the chunks of armour which were my clothes to leave my body.
Finally they cut them off and threw them into an angular heap at the foot
of my bunk. Next morning they were a sodden mass weighing 24 lbs. Bread
and jam, and cocoa; showers of questions; "You know this is the hardest
journey ever made," from Scott; a broken record of George Robey on the
gramophone which started us laughing until in our weak state we found it
difficult to stop. I have no doubt that I had not stood the journey as
well as Wilson: my jaw had dropped when I came in, so they tell me. Then
into my warm blanket bag, and I managed to keep awake just long enough to
think that Paradise must feel something like this.

We slept ten thousand thousand years, were wakened to find everybody at
breakfast, and passed a wonderful day, lazying about, half asleep and
wholly happy, listening to the news and answering questions. "We are
looked upon as beings who have come from another world. This afternoon I
had a shave after soaking my face in a hot sponge, and then a bath.
Lashly had already cut my hair. Bill looks very thin and we are all very
blear-eyed from want of sleep. I have not much appetite, my mouth is very
dry and throat sore with a troublesome hacking cough which I have had all
the journey. My taste is gone. We are getting badly spoiled, but our
beds are the height of all our pleasures."
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But this did not last long:

"Another very happy day doing nothing. After falling asleep two or three
times I went to bed, read Kim, and slept. About two hours after each meal
we all want another, and after a tremendous supper last night we had
another meal before turning in. I have my taste back but all our fingers
are impossible, they might be so many pieces of lead except for the pins
and needles feeling in them which we have also got in our feet. My toes
are very bulbous and some toe-nails are coming off. My left heel is one
big burst blister. Going straight out of a warm bed into a strong wind
outside nearly bowled me over. I felt quite faint, and pulled myself
together thinking it was all nerves: but it began to come on again and I
had to make for the hut as quickly as possible. Birdie is now full of
schemes for doing the trip again next year. Bill says it is too great a
risk in the darkness, and he will not consider it, though he thinks that
to go in August might be possible."
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And again a day or two later:

"I came in covered with a red rash which is rather ticklish. My ankles
and knees are a bit puffy, but my feet are not so painful as Bill's and
Birdie's. Hands itch a bit. We must be very weak and worn out, though I
think Birdie is the strongest of us. He seems to be picking up very
quickly. Bill is still very worn and rather haggard. The kindness of
everybody would spoil an angel."
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