EARL* NOTICE AND FIGURE OP THE GREAT AUK. 143 



through a number of editions in the latter part of the seventeenth 

 century and throughout the eighteenth. The first edition, which 

 was published about the year 1673, does not contain the pas- 

 sage, which first appears (so far as I have been able to discover) 

 on p. 17 of the edition of 1728. It occurs among some direc- 

 tions for sailing upon the coast of Newfoundland, and reads as 

 follows : — 



" Some Directions ivhich ought to be taken notice of by those who 

 sail to Newfoundland. 



" The Bank of Newfoundland would be of very great service 

 to those that are bound to that coast, was the said Bank exactly 

 laid down. * * * 



" There is also another thing to be taken notice of, by which 

 you may know when you are upon the Bank. I have read an 



[Figures of Alca impennis, from Seller's ' English Pilot.'] 



"Note. — These fowls never fly, for their wings are very short, most 

 like the fins of a fish, having nothing upon them but a sort of Down 

 and short Feathers." 



Author that says, in treating of this coast, that you may know 

 this by the great quantities of fowls upon the Bank, viz. Sheer- 

 waters, Willocks, Noddles, Gulls, and Pengwins, &c, without 

 making any exceptions ; which is a mistake, for I have seen all 

 those Fowls 100 Leagues off this Bank, the Pengwins excepted. 

 It's true that all these fowls are seen there in great quantities* 

 but none are to be minded so much as the Pengwins, for these 

 never go without the Bank as the others do, for they are always on 



