in Iceland respecting the Gare-fowl. 383 



nexlon with this fact, it may not be amiss to observe that Ander- 

 son, some time Burgomaster of Hamburg, in his account of Ice- 

 land, remarks* on the occurrence of many Great Auks the 

 year before the death of King Frederick IV. (of Denmark), which 

 took place in 1730. Hereupon Niels Horrebow, whose prin- 

 cipal object was to contradict all Anderson had said, with some 

 reason ridiculesf his predecessor's notion of that event being 

 thus heralded, and asserts that no more birds were seen in the 

 year mentioned than previously. But it seems to me improbable 

 that Anderson should have no grounds for his statement, though 

 of course I do not admit the portentous inference, and, if so, it 

 is not unlikely that the renewal of visits to the Geirfuglasker, in 

 1732, may have been prompted by the report the last-named 

 author mentions of the bird's abundance three years before. On 

 the other hand, I atn unable to connect this reported abundance 

 with any other physical phenomenon. I do not find that the 

 period just previous to 1729 was marked by any volcanic out- 

 bursts, or the presence of any extraordinary amount of floating 

 ice, either of which events might be supposed to affect the bird's 

 movements. 



In 1755, Eggert Olafsen and Bjarne Povelsen, to whose accu- 

 rate account of Iceland I have already alluded, explored the 

 Gulbringu Sysla, which comprehends the south-western corner 

 of the island, and they passed the following winter at Vi^ey 

 {op. cit. pp. 848, 849), during which time it is mentioned that 

 they saw both the bird and its egg, which had been obtained from 

 the Reykjanes skerry by some SuSnes boats (p. 983). A few 

 years later, Mohr in his work, which I have also before mentioned, 

 says {op. cit. p. 28) that he was assured by the peasants that the 

 bird was blind when on land, a notion not entertained by the 

 Fseroese, but which still prevails in Iceland. He was also told 

 that in former days people had filled their boats with its eggs from 

 the Reykjanes station, and though he does not expressly say so, I 

 think we may infer from these authorities that about the middle 



* ' Herrn Johann Anderson, &c. Nachvichten von Island, Gronland und 

 der Strasse Davis, &c.' Frankfurt u. Leipzig, 1747, p- 52. 



t ' Tilforladelige Efterretninger cm Island, &c.' Kjobenhavn, 1752, 

 pp. 175, 176. 



