10 The Bird Rock Group. 
took my spy-glass, and in an instant the strangest picture stood 
before me. They were birds we saw—a mass of birds of such 
size as I never before cast my eyes on. The whole of my party 
stood astounded and amazed, and we came to the conclusion 
that such a sight was of itself sufficient to invite any one to come 
across the gulf to view it at this season. The nearer we ap- 
proached, the greater our surprise at the enormous number of 
these birds, all calmly seated on their eggs or newly hatched 
broods, their heads all turned to windward and toward us. The 
air above for one hundred yards, and for some distance around 
the whole Rock was filled with Gannets on the wing, which, from 
our position, made it appear as if a heavy fall of snow was 
directly above us.”’ ' 
After this description one can readily imagine Audubon’s dis- 
appointment when the freshening wind prevented his landing on 
the Rock, and we therefore must turn to the account of Dr. 
Henry Bryant as that of the first naturalist to set foot on Bird 
Rock. This was on June 23, 1860, when, after a climb which 
he characterized as both ‘‘ difficult and dangerous,’’ Dr. Bryant 
reached the top of the Rock. In addition to the birds found 
living on the sides of the Rock, he states that its entire northerly 
half was tenanted by Gannets, and after measuring the area they 
occupied, he estimated that this one colony alone contained no 
less than 100,000 birds, while the number living on the sides of 
the Rock and on Little Bird he placed at 50,000.” 
Bryant was followed by Maynard, Brewster, Cory, Lucas, and 
others, but in the meantime a change had occurred which made 
the Rock more accessible and at the same time greatly reduced 
its feathered population. In 1869 a lighthouse was erected on 
its summit and within three years the colony of Gannets nesting 
there decreased from 100,000 to 5000 birds; while nine years 
later only 50 birds remained. 
This practical extermination of the summit-nesting birds was 
due in part to the light-keepers, who evidently did not care for 
the close companionship of 50,000 pairs of by no means sweet- 
voiced birds, and, later, to the use of a cannon, which, during 
the fogs so prevalent in this region, was discharged at short 
1 Audubon and his Journals, I., p. 360. 
2 Bryant, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1861. 
