674 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
obtained as corroborative proof of the correctness of the various 
records by the French sailors whose annual visits and slaughter of 
the defenceless birds have been already referred to. Shortly before 
Stuvitz made this discovery, Mr J. B. Jukes, who was engaged in a 
geological survey of Newfoundland in 1839, thus refers to a group 
of islands nearer the mainland: — “Aug. 26. At dawn we were 
under weigh. We sailed along shore as far as Dead Man’s Point 
where the sand beaches ended and a rocky shore began; and then, 
passing by some low rocks called the Penguin Islands, sailed through 
the islets called the Wadhams. There was a large island of ice 
aground off these islands. Penguins were formerly so abundant on 
these shores that their fat bodies have been used for fuel : they are, 
however, now all destroyed, and none have been seen for many 
years.”* Writing in the same year in which Mr Jukes’ book was 
published, viz., 1842, Sir Eichard Bonnycastle has the following 
remarks : — “ In winter many of the Arctic ice birds frequent the 
coast, but the large Auk, or Penguin ( Alca impennis ), which not fifty 
years ago was a sure sea-mark on the edge of and inside the banks, has 
totally disappeared, from the ruthless trade in its eggs and skin.” f 
Mention may here be made of a mummified specimen of the bird 
which was procured from Funk Island in 1863, and forwarded to 
Professor Newton ; and also of three other specimens, preserved in 
a similar way, from the same locality, which were obtained in the 
following year. The first formed the subject of a communication 
to the Zoological Society of London by Mr Newton, and is referred 
to as, with one exception, the only approach to a complete skeleton 
existing in Europe ; the others passed into the hands of Professor 
Agassiz, and the British Museum. All these specimens were in a 
fair state of preservation owing to the antiseptic property of the 
soil : they were found 3 or 4 feet below the surface, under a cover- 
ing of ice, about 2 feet in thickness. J 
* Excursions in and about Newfoundland during the years 1839 and 1840. 
London, 1842, vol. ii., pp. 115, 116. 
t Newfoundland in 1842, by Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle, Knt., Lieut. - 
Col. in the Corps of Royal Engineers, vol. i., p. 232. 
J In “ A Short American Tramp, in the fall of 1864” (Campbell), p. 115, 
the author writes, “ About 40 miles outside lie the Funks. Here used to be 
great numbers of Geyer fogel. Their skeletons are now brought to St Johns 
with guano.” 
