EXTERMINATION OF GREAT AUK 41 



They loaded their boat with birds, among which Gare- 

 fowls were in no inconsiderable number, leaving yet as 

 many more on the island which they had killed but 

 could find no room for. I saw a man who was present on 

 this occasion. Some 18 years later the Geirfuglasker 

 sank beneath the waves in a volcanic disturbance of the 

 sea's bottom, and about that time a few birds, the 

 descendants probably of those who had survived the 

 great massacre, were found on an island lying nearer 

 the mainland, but still only to be reached with difficulty. 

 Under the influence of the " Almighty Dollar " (though 

 in Iceland it is not worth 4/2) these poor birds were 

 persecuted, their eggs plundered and their necks broken 

 to supply the demand which Museums were then creating. 

 And so the number dwindled, until in 1844, the only 

 two then to be seen were taken, their egg broken (the 

 shell left on the rock) and their skins shipped to Europe. 

 I do not think there is any good evidence of the bird 

 being seen since that time ; but I confess I do not give 

 it quite up, nor shall I for the next five or six years, 

 though the places suitable for its breeding station must 

 be very few in number. The coast of Iceland is well 

 known, and as Iceland is the most northern Hmit of the 

 bird's range, it is useless trying further towards the Pole. 

 The east coast of Greenland is encumbered by ice, and 

 Labrador is nearly as well known as Iceland. 



Wolley died in the year following their return to 

 England, and Newton never found an opportunity of 

 repeating his visit to Iceland, but from that time he 

 began to collect every scrap of information * relating to 

 the Gare-fowl and to prepare a complete list f of all the 

 existing remains of the bird — eggs, skins, and bones. On 

 his journeys about England and the Continent he visited 

 every public and private collection which possessed a 



* " The Gare-fowl and its Historians," Natural History Revieiv, October, 

 1865. 



t " On Existing Remains of the Gare-fowl {Aha impennis),'^ The Ibis, 

 AprU, 1870. 



