"iSo Hardy on the Great Auk. [October 



TESTIMONY OF SOME EARLY VOYAGERS ON 

 THE GREAT AUK. 



BY FANNIE P. HARDY. 



Mr. Lucas, in his recent article on the Great Auk, asks if the 

 "great Apponatz" of Hakluyt may not be either a misprint or a 

 wrong translation of '•''grasse Apponatz^'' the fat Apponatz ; and 

 further on supposes, for the sake of a question, that the Apponatz 

 is the Razor-bill, as if the "Apponatz" and the "great Apponatz" 

 were two different birds. That there is no mistake involved, and 

 that but one bird, the Great Auk, is meant, can be shown by 

 comparing the certain statements of early travellers. 



Unfortunately the notes from which I draw my material were 

 taken for quite another purpose, and contain no extracts from 

 Cartier, and no copy of his works is at present accessible ; but 

 as every good library should contain at least the Tross reprints 

 ofthe'Bref Recit et Succinte Narration,' the 'Discours du Voy- 

 age fait (en 1534)' and the 'Relation Originale,' his exact 

 words can be very easily determined. A few of the very best 

 libraries in the country may possibly contain the following as 

 well : 'A short and || brief narration of the two || Navigations 

 and Discoueries |1 to the Northwest partes called 1| Newe France :|| 

 First translated out of French into Italian by that famous || 

 learned man Gio : Bapt : Ramutius, and now turned || into English 

 by John Florio : worthy the rea || ding of all Venturers, Trauel- 

 lers II and Discouuerers' || etc. This book, published in 1580, is 

 an English translation of Cartier's work, and is in all probability 

 the one quoted by Hakluyt. 



While these four books would decide the question oi graiide 

 and^ra.yi-e, far more valuable as evidence is a quotation from 

 one of them made by Marc Lescarbot in 1609. This I have not 

 compared with Cartier, but probably, like most of the quotations 

 of that time, it is a paraphrase rather than a verbal reproduction. 

 Certainly it is much modernized in spelling. Yet that it is strik- 

 ingly accurate anyone may see by comparing the French as here 

 given with the English translation from Hakluyt, quoted in 'The 

 Auk' for April, p. 129. The great value of this extract as evi- 



