Birds. 8115 



betake himself, on account of his flightlessness." The writer then 

 goes on to speak of the extreme danger of landing on account of the 

 surf, saving that to go there is to place life and death on an even 

 chance ; and after mentioning the report, which is even now current, 

 that a successful expedition to the skerry was equally profitable with 

 a summer's hiring of two hundred fishes' value in the north country, 

 and citing the statement from the Maldaga, to which I have before 

 referred, concludes with Sir Hallkiell's couplet mentioned above. 

 Besides this, there are appended two foot-notes. In the first the 

 writer says that in the year 1732, after a lapse of seventy-five years, 

 the skerry was visited, and two huts, three birchen staffs about two 

 ells long, and some withered human bones, were found thereon ; 

 adding, by way of comment, that three men had been known to have 

 supported themselves on the rock by eating sun-dried birds, and 

 drinking rotten eggs for half a month before they were taken off. 

 The second note gives a very accurate description of the gare-fowl 

 and its peculiarities, including its eggs, which the writer describes as 

 if he had been an enthusiastic oologist, though he considers it worthy 

 of remark that he has " known Danes give eight to ten fishes * for an 

 empty blown egg," the climax being the apostrophe " Rara avis in 

 terris ! " Not the least singular part of the manuscript is an inserted 

 leaf, on which is drawn a very quaint sketch of the skerry. Two boats 

 are seen, anchored with large stones, according to the Icelandic cus- 

 tom still prevalent. In one of these are seated three, and in the other 

 two men, waiting the return of three comrades, who are on the rock, 

 hunting what appear to be gare-fowls, of which upwards of sixty are 

 represented. 



Now it has been above stated that in 1732 expeditions to the skerry 

 were resumed after being long discontinued, and, in connexion with 

 this fact it may not be amiss to observe that Anderson, some time 

 Burgomaster of Hamburg, in his account of Iceland,! remarks on the 

 occurrence of many great auks the year before the death of King 

 Frederick IV. of Denmark, which took place in 1730. Hereupon 

 Niels Horrebow, whose principal object was to contradict all Anderson 



* I much regret not being able to give, in explanation of this and the passage 

 mentioned a few lines above, the worth of a Jish at the period when I suppose this 

 manuscript to have been written. It was, and in the secluded parts of the country 

 still is, the unit of the Icelandic currency, but of course a unit of very variable value. 



t ' Herrn Johann Anderson, &c. Nachrichten von Island, Grouland und der 

 Strasse Davis, &c.' Frankfurt u. Leipzig, 1747, p. 52. 



