710 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



Newfoundland fisheries. The very earliest reference to the Great Auk 

 in America occurs in the account of Cartier's first voyage, in 1534, 

 wherein the chronicler records a visit to Funk Island for the purpose 

 of procuring birds for fresh provisions, and, under the name of Great 

 Apponatz, tells of the capture of a boat-load of this flightless fowl. 

 From that time onward, so long as the species existed, fishermen and 

 colonists availed themselves of tbe prodigious store of Great Auks 

 which, after the manner of mankind, they assumed that Providence 

 had provided for their special benefit. The extent to which the Great 

 Auk was used is shown by Anthonie Parkhurst's statement, written in 

 1578, that " the Frenchmen who fish neere the grand bale doe bring small 

 store of flesh with them, but victuall themselves with these birds" (the 

 Great Auks). Granting that this exaggerates the facts in the case, it 

 seems evident that the birds were very largely employed for provisions, 

 and since, in 1578, there were about one hundred and fifty French ves- 

 sels, aggregating about 7,000 tons, employed in the cod fishery, the de- 

 struction of Great Auks must have been immense. 



Captain Eichard Whitbourne, who was sent in 1615 to establish order 

 in Newfoundland, on his return wrote a book, which was freely distrib- 

 uted in order to encourage emigration to that country, and in this we 

 find the abuudance of Great Auks held forth among other inducements. 

 Says the narrator : "These Penguins* areas bigge as geese and flye 

 not, for they have but a little short wing, and they multiply so infi- 

 nitely upon a certain flat iland that men drive them from thence upon 

 a board into their boats by hundreds at a time, as if God had made the 

 innocency of so poore a creature to become such an admirable instru 

 inent for the sustentation of man." 



In more recent times we are told that the merchants of Bonavista 

 and otln r localities used to sell salted Auks by the hundred weight for 

 provisions, and Audubon says that the young were used for bait, t 



Undoubtedly the drain made upon the numbers of the Great Auk 

 for the purposes just mentioned wouM have ultimately caused its ex- 

 termination, but the direct cause for its rapid extinction was the killing 

 of the birds for the sake of the feathers. This destruction was ren- 

 dered all the more rapid and profitable from the fact that the breeding 

 grounds of the Great Auk, like those of the Gannet, were extremely 

 restricted, so that during the breeding season the entire race was to be 

 found assembled at two or three localities. Whatever may have been 

 the case in prehistoric times, there are no allusions to the Great Auk in 

 the accounts of early navigators that even hint at its occurrence in 



*The name Penguin was originally applied to the Great Auk, and not to the 

 southern bird now hearing the appellation, and was the name by which the Great 

 Auk was commonly known in America. 



t These two statements are taken from works on the Great Auk, and the authority 

 for the first is not given. Still, there seems no room to doubt the truth of either. 

 On the other hand, no reference occurs anywhere to the use of the eggs of the Auk, 

 although they must have been taken by the boat load. 



