608 • REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



Ou the summit of tlio island, and not far from tho center, are the 

 ruins of a stone hut, built of the abundant slabs, and visible for a con- 

 siderable distance. This hut is said by l*rofessor Milne to have been 

 the residence of the party who resided on the island for a short time in 

 1803 for the purpose of procuring guano. But according to another ac- 

 count it was built for the accommodation of a sealing crew who, some 

 years ago, was placed on the island to pass the winter and obtain the 

 first chance at the seals who come down on the floe-ice in the spring. 

 The entire crew, with the exception of the cook, were lost while out 

 sealing, and the sole survivor rescued in an almost insane condition. 



The strongest i^oint in favor of the more poetic version is found in 

 the fact that the guano party were on the island but a few days in sum- 

 mer, and they would scarcely have taken the trouble to build so sub- 

 stantial a dwelling. 



In 1863* Mr. Thomas N. Molloy, now United States consul at St. 

 John's, fitted out the expedition to seek for guano at Funk Island, Cap- 

 tains Burke and Glyndon being at the head of the enterprise. They 

 landed on the island, taking with them a large skiff', while their schooner 

 returned to the harbor of Seldom Come By, Fogo Island. 



In all 35 tons of guano were secured, four laborers obtaining 20 tons 

 in ten days. Five tons were sold at auction in St. John's for $19 per 

 ton and the remainder consigned to a Boston house, by whom it was in 

 turn sent to Baltimore and Washington. 



Just where the guano came fromitis difficult to say, for there is now no 

 trace of it on Funk Island, except in the shape of a strong smell on the 

 bare rocks of the eastern part, resorted to by Murres and Eazor-bills. 



The climate is not favorable to the formation of guano deposits, such 

 as are found in dry tropical regions, and on Funk Island the rain must 

 long ago have washed out the soluble constituents of the old " soil " of 

 that part of the island formerly inhabited by the Great Auk. 



The soil consists of two distinct layers, the lower portion, formed 

 during the occupancy of the Auk, being from 3 inches to 1 foot in thick- 

 ness and consisting largely of fragments of egg shells, although next to 

 bed rock are numerous angular pebbles of various sizes. 



The black dust from the decayed, overlying vegetation and abundant 

 patches of charcoal has filtered into the lower stratum, but so numerous 

 are the fragments of egg-shells that the deposit has a yellowish gray 

 color. 



The upper layer of soil, also from 3 inches to 1 foot thick, has formed 

 since the extermination of the Auk, principally by the growth and 

 decay of vegetation nourished by their bodies. 



In fact it is possible, from the character of the plant growth above, 

 to tell something of the probable abundance of Auk remains below j 

 thickness of the one indicating corresponding plenty of the other. 



* Mr. MoUoy gave the date as 1866, bat as tlie " mummies " were certainly obtaiued 

 iu 1863, this may have been a slip of the pen. 



