116 THE GREAT AUK. 



these birds, which they found breeding in myriads on the low 

 islands off the coasts of Newfoundland. Besides the fresh birds 

 consumed by the ships' crews many tons were salted down for 

 further use. In the space of an hour, these old voyagers tell us, 

 they could fill thirty boats with the birds. It w^as only 

 necessary to go on shore, armed with sticks, to kill as many 

 as they chose. The birds were so stupid that they allowed 

 themselves to be taken up on their own proper element by 

 boats under sail ; and it is even said, that on putting out a plank, 

 it was possible to drive the Great Auks up out of the sea into 

 the boats. On land, the sailors formed low enclosures of stones, 

 into which they drove the Penguins, and as they were unable 

 to fly, kept them there enclosed till they were wanted for the 

 table. 



In 1841, a distinguished Norwegian Naturalist (too early, alas' 

 lost to science), Peter Stuwitz, visited Funk Island or Penguin 

 Island, lying to the east of Newfoundland. Here, on the north- 

 west shore of the island, he found enormous heaps of the bones 

 and skeletons of the Great Auk, lying either in exposed masses, 

 or slightly covered by the earth. On this side of the island, the 

 rocks slope gradually down to the shore; and here were still 

 standing the stone fences and enclosures into which the birds 

 were driven for slaughter. It is said, too, that as the birds were 

 fat, and burnt well, they actually were used for fuel, as the dried 

 bodies of the Auks and Guillemots are still employed on the 

 Westmanu Islands. 



HolboU tells us that no specimen of the Great Auk has been 

 seen in Greenland since 1815; but Dr. Pingel informed us, in 

 Copenhagen, in 183G, that two birds of the species had been 

 killed there since 1830. One was eaten by the Moravian mis- 

 sionaries, as a wild goose ! and the other was preserved, and is 

 now in the collection of an Ornithologist at Schleswig. 



It has been surmised that the present habitat of the Great 

 Auk may be upon the inaccessible coast of East Greenland, but 

 ships sailing between Iceland and that country never meet with 

 the Great Auk upon their passage; nor was the bird observed 

 by Scoresby or the few other navigators win ) approached these 



