Remember, Eh!

Gone but not forgotten A Repeat in 2008 Earl Plato
At one family dinner at daughter Diane O’Brien’s place in Wainfleet this year I suggested that we raise a toast to remember our loved ones who had passed on. We have photos and all kinds of memorabilia to refresh our memories of good times with them. Keeping family records is important to me. However, what I am to write about was inspired by nature writer Ed Teale’s log. It’s not about relatives but about an unusual bird that has become extinct no thanks to man. “Gone but not forgotten.” No, it’s not the Passenger pigeon. I recalled seeing this bird so I turned to my albums on Norway and Scandinavia. On our way to Oslo where some of our relatives live we spent some time in Copenhagen, Denmark. Those who know me know I want to see every castle and museum there is. We toured Hamlet’s Elsinore (Kronburg) castle, the Royal Residence and the Royal University Museum. It is there in the museum we saw it. There was the actual body and viscera of the Great Auk. That huge bird was described in the 16th century as “large, black and white flightless “penguins.” Perhaps as early as the 12th century Viking explorers on Newfoundland’s rocky shores met up with the Great Auk. Why else would this North American bird be on display in a Danish museum? The large bird about the size of a big goose was slow moving . Although a good swimmer, it was awkward on land. What I recall seeing in the museum was a bird with a short tail and short wings like a penguin. Snap happy as I am I did not get a photo for my album. I have since researched it on the net to no avail. Maybe you can. In May, 1524, Jacques Cartier visited storm-swept Funk Island off the coast of Newfoundland. His records tell us that this rocky outpost was swarming with large black and white birds. The birds, unaccustomed to men, showed little fear. Like the amiable Dodo bird of the South Pacific their slaughter by Cartier’s men was made easy. Later a 17th century English writer in England expressed the prevailing attitude toward these birds. “God made the innocencie of so poor A creature to become such an admirable instrument for the substenation of man.” Translated it means to me - kill all these auks - that’s what they are there for - for man to eat - so eat away. Yes, they were mainly killed for food. They were also butchered to provide bait for the fishing fleets on the Grand Banks. They were then slaughtered for their feathers - which were removed by immersing them in scalding water. The fat-filled bodies of the discarded auks were used as fuel for boiling the water. And so it continued. The inevitable is recorded. The last day on which a Great auk viewed the world its kind had known for so long was June 3, 1844. That’s about 50 years or so before our last Passenger pigeons were wiped out by man.