Fred finds a glass bottle, fills it with seawater, and caps it with fish bone. When the water freezes, it expands and cracks the bottle. This proves his theory that seawater, seeping into the fissures, canals, and caves inside the penguin colony’s iceberg, will break up the berg and destroy the colony’s home. The damaged bottle helps convince the penguins that they need to solve the iceberg problem. It also becomes a symbol of heroism when Louis awards it to kindergartener Sally Ann for her solution to the problem of feeding famished scouts on their return. The bottle also symbolizes creative thinking and the ability to adapt unusual resources to other purposes.

The iceberg, located just off the coast of Antarctica, has been the penguin colony’s home as far back as they can remember, but it has developed fissures that might rupture and break apart with disastrous consequences. The iceberg symbolizes the resource base of any medium-to-large business or other organization. Resources can be anything from a central office building to a valuable client list, and the unstable fissures, canals, and caves penguin Fred discovers symbolize the type of critical problem that can grow quietly in the background until it threatens a group’s survival.