Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: EXPLORATIONS IN NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR IN 1887, MADE IN CONNECTION WITH THE CRUISE OF THE U. S. FISH COMMISSION SCHOONER GRAMPUS By Fredkric A. Lucas, jtssistant Curator of tlie Department of Comparative Anatomy. In tbe spring of 1887 the writer was detailed by Professor Baird to accompany the U. S. Fish Commission schooner Grampus on a cruise to northeastern Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, primarily to obtain, if possible, bones of the Great Auk; secondarily to collect such other specimens as might be obtainable. Two years earlier Professor Baird had approved a proposed plan of visiting Funk Island, off Cape Freels, Newfoundland, a former breeding place of the Great Auk, in the hope of finding remains of that extinct bird, but the many difficulties in the way precluded carrying this plan into effect until the building of the Grampus and her projected trip made it feasible. From a scientific standpoint it was extremely desirable to secure bones of the Great Auk, since up to 1887 there were but nine skeletons of that species preserved in museums, only one being in the United States, while the U. S. National Museum possessed but a single bone. Even viewed commercially, a collection of Auk bones would be of considerable value, since the small number of existing specimens had caused them to bring a high price whenever brought into the inarket.t It was eminently fitting that a search for remains of the Great Auk should be undertaken in connection with fishery researches, since this bird once formed an important factor in the prosecution of the early "This report in supplementary to the paper by Mr. Lucas, entitled "The Expedition to Funk Island, with Observations upon the History and Anatomy of the Great Auk," in the Report of the National Museum for 18...