378 Mr. A. Newton on IMr. J. Wolley's Researches 



' Geirfuglasker ' (Gare-fowl skerry) occurring in three different 

 places. The most eastern is situated some thirty miles from the 

 coast, off the island of Papey, and the entrance of Berufjor"Sr, 

 about lat. 64° 35' N., and long. 26^ W. (of Greenwich), and 

 is commonly known to Danish sailors as Hvalshak (Whalers- 

 back), The most southern is one of the Vestmannaeyjar (West- 

 man Islands), in about lat. 63° 20' N., and long. 33° 5' W. The 

 most western is off Cape Reykjanes, in about lat. 63°40'N., 

 and long. 35° 50' W. It was accordingly our first object to 

 ascertain how far these spots now deserved the name they boi-e. 

 On making all the inquiries we were able on our arrival at 

 Reykjavik, we could obtain no recent information respecting the 

 eastern skerry, of which we had, at starting, entertained most 

 hopes. It appeared also that, of the travellers who in the last cen- 

 tury had published accounts of their journeys in Iceland, Olafsen 

 and Olavius only had alluded to this isolated rock as a station for 

 the bird*, though another of them, the Fferoese, Mohr, was in 

 1781 for no less than two months at Djupivogr, on the mainland 

 opposite, engaged in the pursuit of natural history f. We there- 

 fore decided we would not attempt the journey thither, at the 

 risk of missing what seemed a better chance — that of finding the 

 object of our search in the neighbourhood of the western locality, 

 where examples of the bird were known to have been last ob- 

 tained. At the same time, we thoiight it highly desirable that 

 this eastern Geirfuglasker should be visited, and through the in- 

 tervention of several kind friends, we at last met with a gentle- 

 man who was willing, for a suitable recompense, to undertake the 

 toilsome, not to say dangerous, expedition. To dismiss this part 

 of the subject at once, I may here say that our envoy, Herr Can- 

 didatus-Theologife Eirikur Magnusson, a native of that district, 

 reached BerufjorSr in the month of June, and then, taking a 

 boat, proceeded to the island, round which he rowed, quite close 

 enough to satisfy himself tliat there were no Gare-fovvls on it ; 



* Reise igiennem Island, &c. af Eggert Olafsen. Soroe, 17/2, p. 750. 



Oeconomisk Reyse igiennem de noidvestlige, nordlige, og nordostlige 

 Kanter af Island ved Olaus Olavius, &c. Kjobenhavn, 1/80, ii. p. 547. 



t Forsog til en Islandsk Naturhistorie, &c., ved N. Molir. Kiobeuhavn, 

 1/86, p. 383. 



