GREAT AUK 211 



systematic onslaught made for various reasons by so-called civilized 

 man. Breeding on remote islands, the bird had little to fear from 

 savages and other mammalian enemies. Although it could not fly, 

 it could easily take care of itself in the water. 



By most of the men of those days when the great auk flourished the 

 idea of its extinction would have been flouted, and, even if they could 

 have realized it, they would not have viewed the death of a species 

 in the same manner as do the more enlightened of the human race 

 at the present day. Richard Whitbourne (1622) wrote: 



God made the innocencie of so poor a creature to become such an admirable 

 instrument for the sustentation of man. 



The reasons for the slaughter of this bird were primarily for food, 

 later for bait, for its fat and its feathers, and last of all, when it was 

 doomed to extinction, the finishing blow was put by collectors. Sir 

 Richard Bonnycastle in his "Newfoundland in 1842" says: 



In winter many of the arctic ice birds frequent the coast, but the large auk 

 or penguin (Alca impennis} y which, not 50 years ago, was a sure sea mark 

 in the edge of and inside the banks, has totally disappeared, from the ruthless 

 trade in the eggs and skin. 



Cartwright (1792) in his journal under date of July 5, 1785, 

 prophesies the speedy extermination of the great auk. He says: 



A boat came in from Funk Island laden with birds, chiefly penguins. Funk 

 Island is a small flat island rock about 20 leagues east of the island of Fogo, 

 in the latitude of 50 north. Innumerable flocks of sea fowl breed upon it 

 every summer, which are of great service to the poor inhabitants of Fogo, 

 who make voyages there to load with birds and eggs. When the water is 

 smooth, they make their shallop fast to the shore, lay their gangboards from 

 the gunwale of the boat to the rocks, and then drive as many penguins on 

 board as she will hold; for, the wings of those birds being remarkably short, 

 they can not fly, but it has been customary of late years for several crews of 

 men to live all summer on that island for the sole purpose of killing birds for 

 the sake of their feathers; the destruction which they have made is incredible. 

 If a stop is not soon put to that practice, the whole breed will be diminished 

 to almost nothing, particularly the penguins; for this is now the only island 

 they have left to breed upon; all others lying so near to the shores of New- 

 foundland, they are continually robbed. The birds which the people bring from 

 thence they salt and eat, in lieu of salted pork. 



The following note by J. A. Allen (1876) describes more in detail 

 the horrible slaughter for the feathers: 



Mr. Michael Carrol, of Bonavista, Newfoundland, has recently given me the 

 following very interesting facts respecting the extermination of the great auk 

 {Alca impennis} at the Funk Islands. In early life he was often a visitor to 

 these islands, and a witness of what he here describes. He says these birds 

 were formerly very numerous on the Funk Islands, and 45 to 50 years ago were 

 hunted for their feathers, soon after which time they were wholly exterminated. 

 As the auks could not fly, the fishermen would surround them in small boats 

 and drive them ashore into pounds previously constructed of stones. The birds 



