Biids. 8123 



up, out of the'ieach'of ihe waves, is the spot where the gare-fovvls had 

 their home. In this expedition but three men ascended : Jon Brands- 

 son, a son of the former leader, who had several times before visited 

 the rock, with Sigurdr Islefsson and Ketil Ketilsson. A fourth, who 

 was called upon to assist, refused, so dangerous did the landing seem. 

 As the men I have named clambered up, they saw two gare-fowls 

 sitting among the numberless other rock-birds {Uria troile and Alca 

 iorda), and at once gave chase. The gare-fowls showed not the 

 slightest disposition to repel the invaders, but immediately ran along 

 under Jhe high cliff, their heads erect, their little wings somewhat ex- 

 tended. They uttered no cry of alarm, and moved, with their short 

 steps, about as quickly as a man could walk. Jon with outstretched 

 arms drove one into a corner, where he soon had it fast. Sigurdr and 

 Ketil pursued the second, and the former seized it close to the edge 

 of the rock, here risen to a precipice some fathoms high, the water 

 being directly below it. Ketil then returned to the sloping shelf 

 whence the birds had started, and saw an egg lying on the lava slab, 

 which he knew to be a gare-fowl's. He took it up, but finding it was 

 broken, put it down again. Whether there was not also another egg 

 is uncertain. All this took place in much less time than it takes to 

 tell it. They hurried down again, for the wind was rising. The 

 birds were strangled and cast into the boat, and the two younger men 

 followed. Old Jon, however, hesitated about getting in, until his 

 foreman threatened to lay hold of him with the boat-hook ; at last a 

 rope was thrown to him, and he was pulled in through the surf. It 

 was " such Satan's weather," they said, but once clear of the breakers 

 they were all right, and reached home in safety. Next day Vilhjal- 

 niur started with the birds for Reykjavik to take them to Herr Carl F. 

 Siemsen, at whose instance this particular expedition had been under- 

 taken ; but on the way he met Hansen, to whom he sold them for 

 eighty Rigsbank-dollars (about £9). According to Professor Steen- 

 strup [op. cit. p. 78), the bodies are now preserved in spirit in the 

 Museum of the University of Copenhagen, but respecting the ultimate 

 fate of the skins I am not quite sure. 



Several other expeditions besides those to which I have here 

 adverted no doubt took place between the years 1830 and 1844, but 

 1 cannot at present give either the dates or the results. Herr Siemsen 

 informed Mr. Wolley that twenty-one birds and nine eggs had passed 

 through his hands ; but this account contains other details, which are 

 certainly inaccurate. If all the stories we received can be credited, 

 the whole number would reach eighty-seven. I should imagine sixty 



