THE GREAT AUK. 113 



ourselves prepared anotlier version of it more tlian twenty years 

 ago, which has remained in MSS. ever since, "According to 

 native accounts, the Geirfiigi, or Great Auk, formerly bred 

 upon two isolated rocks, to the south of Iceland. One of these 

 lies about fourteen miles to the south of the Westmann Isles ; 

 and the other, on which the bird was said to have been much 

 more plentiful, is the first of three rocks off the projecting point 

 of Rekjanes, on the south-west of Iceland, and about twenty 

 English miles from the land." 



Eggert Olafsen, in his "Travels in Iceland" (p. 983), 

 accurately describes the Great Auk, and indicates its two 

 breeding places; adding, that w'hen he was upon Vidoe two 

 boats went off to the Reykianes rock, and brought him both the 

 birds and the eggs. This was in the year 1770, or thereabouts. 



" For a long time," continues Faber, " the Icelanders have 

 relinquished the dangerous voyage to the Geirfugi Skjaer, as 

 it could only be attempted with any chance of success in the 

 calmest weather, and even then a man had to spring from the 

 boat on to the rock, with a rope round his body, by which, after 

 searching the islet, he was dragged off again through the ever 

 boiling waves." 



In the summer of 1821, Faber hired a fishing yacht at 

 Reykiavik, and, along with a Danish merchant and a Swedish 



Count B , reached the rocks off Reykianes on the 25th 



of June. For two days they cruised off these dangerous 



skerrys, and once accomplished a landing, though Count B 



narrowly escaped with his life, having fallen between the boat 

 and the rocks when attempting to leap on shore. There was 

 not, however, a single bird of this species to be seen ; and the 

 same ill success attended his visit the same year to the other 

 habitat of the Great Auk, near the Westmann Islands. The 

 fishermen, however, in many parts of Iceland, maintained that 

 they saw the bird every year upon the coasts. They seemed 

 to know it well, for they w^ere perfectly aware of its inability 

 to fly, and believed it to be blind, from a flap of skin that hung 

 down over its eyes, an idea undoubtedly derived from the 

 remarkable eye-spot so conspicuous on the summer-plumage. 



VOL. IV. VT. II. p 



