224 COMMON GANNET. 
top or platform. The only point on which a boat may be landed lies” 
on the south side, and the moment the boat strikes it must be hauled 
dry on the rocks. The whole surface of the upper platform is closely 
covered with nests, placed about two feet asunder, and in such regular 
order that a person may see between the lines, which run north and 
south, as if looking along the furrows of a deeply ploughed field. The 
Labrador fishermen and others who annually visit this extraordinary 
resort of the Gannets, for the purpose of procuring their flesh to bait 
their cod-fish hooks, ascend armed with heavy short clubs, in parties 
of eight, ten, or more, and at once begin their work of destruction. 
At sight of these unwelcome intruders, the affrighted birds rise on 
wing with a noise like thunder, and fly off in such a hurried and con- 
fused manner as to impede each other’s progress, by which thousands 
are forced downwards, and accumulate into a bank many feet high ; 
the men beating and killing them with their clubs until fatigued, or 
satisfied with the number they have slain.” Here Mr Gopwin assu- 
red us that he had visited the Gannet Rock ten seasons in succession, 
for the purpose just mentioned, and added, that on one of these oc- 
casions, “six men had destroyed five hundred and forty Gannets in 
about an hour, after which the party rested a while, and until most 
of the living birds had left their immediate neighbourhood, for all 
around them, beyond the distance of about a hundred yards, thou- 
sands of Gannets were yet sitting on their nests, and the air was 
filled with multitudes of others. The dead birds are now roughly 
skinned, and the flesh of the breast cut up in pieces of different sizes, 
which will keep good for bait about a fortnight or three weeks. So 
great is the destruction of these birds for the purpose mentioned, that 
the quantity of their flesh so procured supplies with bait upwards of 
forty boats, which lie fishing close to the Island of Brion each season. 
By the 20th of May the rock is covered with birds on their nests and 
eggs, and about a month afterwards the young are hatched. The earth 
is scratched by the birds for a few inches deep, and the edges surrounded 
by sea-weeds and other rubbish, to the height of eight or ten inches, 
tolerably well matted together. Each female Gannet lays a single egg, 
which is pure white, but not larger than a good-sized hen’s egg. When 
the young are hatched, they are bluish-black, and for a fortnight or 
more their skin is not unlike that of the common dog-fish. They gra- 
dually become downy and white, and when five or six weeks old look 
like great lumps of carded wool.” 
