494 REPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



The early navigators, the French fishermen and tlie English colonists, 

 each availed themselves to the utmost of the store of this sea-fowl 

 which a (to the unfeathered bipeds) kindly Providence had placed at 

 their disposal. 



For many years the birds were used for provision, both fresh and 

 salted, and probably for bait by the fishermen, but great as was the 

 drain made on the birds for these purposes it seems unlikely that this 

 alone would have caused their extermination in so short a time, as the 

 Great Auk was not such a delicacy that unusual eftbrts would have 

 been made to obtain it. 



The trade in feathers must probably be debited with having caused 

 the destruction of the species, for although there seem to be no data 

 showing" when or why the demand for Auk feathers arose, there are ref- 

 erences to it in various works on Newfoundland, which seem to be cor- 

 roborated by the hundreds of thousands of Auks whose bodies were 

 left to molder on the heights of Funk Island. 



Cartier, who visited this spot in 1534, makes mention of the bird under 

 the name of Apponath, and in the chronicles of voyages from 1536 on- 

 ward, it is frequently spoken of under the title of Penguin.* 



There is reason to believe that the Garefowl was abundant at Pen- 

 guin Islands, off Cape la Hune, on the southern coast of Newfound- 

 land, and although it is difficult to certainly identify this as the Island 

 of Penguins mentioned by Master Eobert Hore, there is in this case 

 something in a name. 



Names, however, are by no means to be relied upon uidess supported 

 by other evidence, and there is great difficulty in definitely locating 

 many of the places mentioned in the early chronicles. 



A spot might receive several names from several difierent parties, or, 

 as in the present instance, several places might be christened alike. 

 Again, it has frequently happened in Newfoundland that French and 

 Portuguese names have been so altered by the English colonists as to be 

 quite unrecognizable. Thus Cape Eace of to-day was originally Cappa 

 Razza, the flat cape; Cappa Speranza hides its identity under the com- 

 monplace name of Cape Spear, and Bai d' Espoir is hopelessly lost as 

 Bay Despair. 



However abundant the Great Auk may have been elsewhere, Funk 

 Island seems to have been its chief breeding place, and here it donbt- 



* The name Penguin was first applied to the Great Aiik; its application to members 

 of the SpheniscidcB came afterwards. 



The name Apponath, according to C^irtier, was applied by the natives to a species 

 of bird, supposably the Great Auk, that he found in great abundance at the Ishind of 

 Birds ( Punk Island). 



These natives were very likely the Beothucs, although, making due allowance for 

 the twists a word receives in being adopted into a new language, the term Apponath 

 may have come from the Eskimo word agpa, an Auk. 



The Eskimo for the Great Auk was isarokitsok, he that has little wings; for little 

 auk, agparak. 



