EXPEDITION TO FUNK ISLAND. 503 



At the time of Autlubou's visit in 1833 he compared the effect of the 

 birds, seeu from a distance lioveiing- over the snmmit, to a heavy fall 

 of snow. 



The Gannets were then largely used for bait by the fishermen of 

 Bryon Island, no less than forty boats being supplied from the Bird 

 Rocks, and Audubon relates how a party of six killed with clubs five 

 hundred and forty birds in less than an hour. 



In 1860 Dr. Bryant estimated the number of Gannets breeding on tlie 

 summit of the Great Rock alone at 50,000 pairs, the total number at 

 75,000 pairs, although these figures are very likelytoo high. 



In 1872, owing to tbe erection of the light- house, the colony on top 

 of the rock had become reduced to 5,000, and in 18S1 Mr. Wm. Brew- 

 ster found that the Gannets had been entirely driven from the summit, 

 although the Little Rock was still densely populated. He places the 

 total Gannet population of tbe rocks at 50,000, which is still an ex- 

 traordinary and impressive number, although much less than the figures 

 of previous observers. 



In 1887, only six years later, not a single Ganuet bred on the Little 

 Rock, although perhaps a hundred and fifty may have found nesting 

 places on the Pillar, while according to M. Turbid not more than ten 

 thousand dwelt on the ledges of the Great Rock. 



Besides the Bird Rocks the only large colony of Gannets in the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence is at Bonaveuture Island, on the Canadian coast, where, 

 on the lofty and vertical cliffs of the eastern side (250 feet high), these 

 birds breed in a state of semi-security. Dr. Bryant inadvertently locates 

 this colony at Perce, or Arch Rock, but although this curious and 

 inaccessible islet is only a mile or so distant, and the birds breeding on 

 its summit are perfectly safe, not a single Ganuet is to be found among 

 them. 



Here, too, the number of Gannets has greatly diminished, and when 

 later on we visited Bonaventure Captain Collins expressed surprise at 

 the marked decrease in their numbers. That this colony ever compared 

 in extent with that at the Bird Rock is very doubtful, although Dr. 

 Bryant states that it is " perhaps even more remarkable." 



A few Gannets were found at Perroquet Island of the Mingan group, 

 in spite of the incessant persecution of the Indians who regularly make 

 a clean sweep there. In 1860 Dr. Bryant predicted that the locality 

 would soon be deserted, but in 1881 Mr. Brewster found several hun- 

 dred birds still there, although shortly after his visit the Indians took 

 every egg. 



No Gannets were seen east of Mingan, and none on the eastern coast 

 of Newfoundland, although in the time of Cartier there seems to have 

 been a colony of these birds on Funk Island, where, if one may credit 

 the testimony of fishermen, they were still breeding thirty years ago. 



The same decrease of Gannets seems to be taking place elsewhere, 

 and Professor Newton tells me that at Lundy Island in the Bristol Chan- 



