EXPEDITION TO FUNK ISLAND. 501 



Landing' can hardly be called easy in any but tlie finest of weather, 

 but on the afternoon of our visit we were favored with a calm, and suc- 

 ceeded in beaching- our boat on the southerly side without difficulty, 

 ])ossibly on the same spot where nearly three centuries before Charles 

 Leigh found a herd of huge walruses basking in the sun. 



The Little Rock is about 75 yards long and perhaps 50 feet in height. 

 It is divided into two portions by a wide cleft, that seems from the con- 

 dition of the fallen rocks to be of comparatively recent origin, and it is 

 only a question of time when there shall be two islets instead of one. 



Twenty-five yards from the eastern point lies the little rocky pillar 

 mentioned by Dr. Bryant, but this is now separated from the Little Rock 

 even at low tide, although if one does not mind cold water and slip- 

 pery rocks, It is then an easy matter to wade across the connecting 

 ledge. 



About midway between the Great and Little Rocks is a shoal which 

 may possibly mark the site of the little rock mentioned by Cartier, 

 although the islet, that for lack of a name may be called the Pillar, 

 agrees sufficiently well with the description. 



It has been considered probable that the Great Auk once bred here, 

 and that this was the bird Cartier calls the Great Appouatz. True, a 

 few may have strayed here from the colony at Penguin Island, off Cape 

 la Hune,* but this, from the clannish habits of the bird, seems doubtful. 

 Besides the area available for breeding purposes is limited to a narrow 

 strip on the northeastern point, and a still more restricted portion on 

 the southern side, these being the only places accessible to a flightless 

 bird like the Garefowl. 



Mr. Grieve suggests in a recent letter that in former times the space 

 at the base of the Little liock was much more extended than at present, 

 since Oartier's crew " killed above a thousand of these Godetz and Ap- 

 pouatz" " on the lowest part of the least island." 



This supposition may well be correct, yet careful observation of the 

 rock and the depth of water immediately about it leads to the conclu- 

 sion that the changes it may have undergone have been the result of 

 the fall of fragments from the overhanging sides rather than the wearing 

 away of the base. 



Charles Leigh makes no mention of Penguins at the time of his visit 

 in 1597, although it seems probable that he would have done so had 

 they been there. 



On the other hand, the Bird Rocks agree in location with the "Island 

 of Penguin," mentioned by Silvestre Wyet, shipmaster of Bristol, in 

 1594, ''which lyeth south from the easternmost part of Natiscotec 

 (Anticosti) some twelve leagues. From the island of Penguin wee 

 shaped our course for Cape de Rey and had sight of the Island of Cape 

 Briton." 



*The presence of the Great Auk at the Cape la Hune, Penguin Islands, is very 

 largely presumptive, positive evidence to that effect being lacking. 

 They may be the islands mentioned by M. Hore, or tiiey may not. 



