of Edinburgh, Session 1879-80. 
679 
“ Abstract of Mr Wolley’s researches in Iceland respecting the 
Garefowl or Great Auk.”* In this very able paper a graphic and 
circumstantial account is given of the capture and death of the two 
latest survivors of their species, which event took place on a rock 
called Eldey, or Fire Island, by the Icelanders, and by Danish 
sailors, Meel Ssekken, or the Meal Sack, on the 6th June 1844. 
The chief actors in this memorable undertaking were three 
Icelanders named J(5n Brandsson, Sigurbr Islefsson, and Ketil 
Ketilsson. Experiencing the greatest difficulty in landing upon the 
rock, the three men, as they clambered up, saw two Garefowls 
sitting among the numberless other rock-birds, and at once gave chase. 
“ The Garefowls showed not the slightest disposition to repel the 
invaders, but immediately ran along under the high cliff, their heads 
erect, their little wings somewhat extended. They uttered no cry 
of alarm, and moved with their short steps about as quickly as, a 
man could walk. Jdn, with outstretched arms, drove one into a 
corner, where he soon had it fast. Sigurbr and Ketil pursued the 
second, and the former seized it close to the edge of the rock, here 
risen to a precipice some fathoms high, the water being directly 
below it. Ketil then returned to the sloping shelf whence the birds 
had started, and saw an egg lying on the lava slab which he knew 
to be a Garefowl’s. He took it up, but finding it was broken, put it 
down again. Whether there was not also another egg is uncertain. 
All this took place in much less time than it takes to tell it. They 
hurried down again, for the wind was rising. The birds were 
strangled and cast into the boat.” And so died the last of the 
Great Auks. + 
The commander of this expedition, on reaching the shore with his 
ill-gotten booty, started at once for Reykjavik to take the birds to 
Carl Siemen, at whose instance the expedition had been undertaken ; 
but on his way he seems to have met a knowing purchaser, to whom 
he sold them for about £9. Allusion is also made in Professor 
* Ibis, vol. iii. 1861, pp. 391, 392. 
f I have been kindly informed by Mr Wenley of this city, that in July of 
the present year he had, through the attention of Professor Steenstrup, an 
opportunity of seeing the remains of these two specimens in the University 
Museum at Copenhagen. They are simply anatomical preparations, consisting 
of the intestines and other internal organs — the muscles, bones, skins, and 
feathers not having been preserved. 
4 M 
VOL. X. 
