4 1 fi HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Pequefia Bay lauded surplus provisions, shoots, and some other articles, and prepared for cruising. 

 Captain Allyn says: "On the third or fourth day we started northward, examining rocks and 

 islands on onr way with little success. We proceeded to Ichaboe Island, where we found plenty of 

 eggs and crawfish, a sort of lobster, with no large claws. We went to Mercury Island, thence to 

 Bird Island, 70 miles farther, the farthest off-shore island on this part of the coast, where the 

 anchorage is bad on account of rocky bottom, and the surf oftentimes renders landing difficult and 

 dangerous. Here we procured a few seal, then skirted the coast back to Angra, where we set up 

 casks and made general preparations for both whaling and sealing. 



" The usual time of the seals coming on shore is from the 10th to the 25th of November, where 

 they remain, if undisturbed, several mouths, or until the young, which are ushered into existence 

 soon after the landing, are able to take care of themselves. They generally shed their coats of hair 

 in February, and the pups become silver-gray and pass as yearlings at about eight months of age. 

 During the season which now followed we found the seal scarce and shy, but by diligence we man 

 aged to secure some 800 skins, which was a slim season's work, as we had the whole coast to 

 ourselves. It was now the 1st of June, 1835, and we consorted awhile with the whale ship Bingham. 

 exchanging our first mate's with their boats' crews, and cruised up and down the coast seeking 

 whales and finding none. After a month and a half, during which time the Biugham secured one 

 whale and we one less, we concluded whaling was rather slim, so I started on a cruise to the south- 

 ward, doubled the Cape of Good Hope and landed on Dyer's Island, where we procured 700 prime 

 seal skins, which somewhat revived our drooping spirits. We returned to Angra, having pro- 

 cured wood at Cape Voltas on our way, and found the Tampico absent on a cruise to the north- 

 ward, and a Boston sealing schooner, Captain Clark, in the harbor. It was September, and as no 

 seals were to be taken, we overhauled and painted the brig, waiting for the seals to come up, occa 

 sioually examining the rocks, but with little success. 



"The seals having been harassed so much the prospect was slim for the next season, but by 

 putting men on the small rocks to shoot them, and by great diligence, we managed to secure about 

 1,000 skins to both vessels, which was a slim season's work." 



The Betsy sailed for home in January and arrived in March, when, the sealing business having 

 ceased to be remunerative, on account of a decline in the price of furs, the owners concluded to 

 send the vessel on a West Indies voyage. 



In 1828 Captain Morrell, in the schooner Antarctic, visited the west coast of Africa on a fur-seal 

 voyage. At Possession Island, iu latitude 26 51' south, he found evidence of a pestilence among 

 the fur seals. The whole island, which is about 3 miles long, he states was " covered with the car 

 casses of fur-seals with their skins still on them. They appeared to have been dead about five years, 

 and it was evident that they had all met their fate about the same period. I should judge, from 

 the immense multitude of bones and carcasses, that not less than half a million had perished here 

 at once, and that they had fallen victims to some mysterious disease or plague." 



About 17 miles north of Possession Island are two small islands not over a mile in length, 

 where Captain Morrell found still further evidence of a plague among the fur-seals. "These two 

 islands," he says, "have once been the resort of immense numbers of fur-seals, which were doubtless 

 destroyed by the same plague which made such a devastation among them on Possession Island, 

 as their remains exhibited the same appearance in both cases."* Other parts of the coast were 

 visited, and at Ichaboe and Mercury Islands several thousand skins were secured. The latter 

 island is only about a mile in circumference, and is in latitude 25 42' south. 



* Morrell's Voyages, New York, 1832, p. 291. 



