SPECIES EXTINCT OR EXTIRPATED. 403 



named Penguin where wee may drive them [Great Auks] on a 

 planke into our ship as many as shall lade her." ^ 



Capt. Edward Haies, in his narrative of the " Voyage of Sir 

 Humphrey Gilbert," in 1583, states that the French fishermen 

 about Newfoundland carried little provisions, but depended 

 on the flesh of the "Penguin," which they salted.^ 



In 1593 Richard Fisher speaks of " Pengwyns " seen at Cape 

 Breton during the " Voyage of the ship called Marigold." ^ 



In Archer's account of Gosnold's voyage to Cape Cod, in 

 the spring and summer of 1602, " Penguins " are mentioned 

 as among the birds seen and taken. Penguins were seen south 

 of Cape Cod on the shoals between Monomoy and Nantucket. 

 Champlain, in 1604, found another island well stocked 

 with Great Auks, situated near the shore of the southwest end 

 of the peninsula of Nova Scotia, which seems to have been 

 overlooked by the historians of this bird.'' This was in May, 

 and possibly the birds may have bred there. These are evi- 

 dently the Tusket or Tousquet Islands, off Pubnico Head, 

 ten or twelve miles from where the wharves of Yarmouth are 

 now situated, and nearly in the latitude of Portland, Me. 

 This leads us to the statement of John Josselyn, who was 

 located at Black Point (Scarborough, near Portland, Me.). 

 He mentions the occurrence of the Great Auk, or "Wobble," 

 as he calls it, in the spring. His New England's Rarities Dis- 

 covered was published in 1672. 



During all this time the slaughter of the Auks went on at 

 all the islands frequented by them. At first they were killed 

 by the fishermen, — mainly for their flesh. Later, this great 

 and apparently inexhaustible source of food supply was used 

 as a bait to lure colonists to Newfoundland; and for years 

 the islands were visited by settlers, and the birds killed and 

 salted for winter use. It was in 1622 that Sir Richard Whit- 

 bourne published his oft-quoted dictum regarding the bird, — 

 that "God made the innocency of so poor a creature to 

 become an admirable instrument for the sustenation of man." 



1 Hakluyt's Voyages, 1600, Vol. Ill, p. 133. 



2 Ibid., pp. 143-161. 



3 Ibid., pp. 191, 193. 



4 Champlain, Samuel de: Voyages, Pub. Prince Sec, 1878, p. 13. 



