June - August 1911 Dr. Edward Wilson is perhaps best known for
instigating and leading what has become known as the Worst
Journey in the World, a six week trip in the depths of the
Antarctic winter, which he himself described as the "the
weirdest bird's-nesting expedition that has ever been or ever
will be". It had its genesis during the Discovery expedition of
1901-1904 when the first rookery of breeding Emperor Penguins
was discovered at Cape Crozier on Ross Island by a sledging
party under Lieutenant Skelton. Wilson's absence during the
great Southern Journey with Captain Scott and Lieutenant
Shackleton precluded him from immediately going to study the
birds. When Discovery was trapped in the ice for a second year,
however, it gave him the opportunity which he craved: to be the
first biologist to study the breeding biology of these
astonishing birds. He left early in the Spring of 1903 and was
astonished to find well grown chicks instead of eggs, which led
him to conclude, correctly, that the birds had to