ANNALS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



X. — Observations on the Fur Seal of Commerce, By R. Ha- 

 milton, Esq., F.R.S.E., M.W.S., &c. 



[With a Plate.] 



XN soliciting attention to the Fur Seal of Commerce, we need 

 scarcely remark that it claims regard in a commercial as well 

 as in a scientific point of view. With the existence of the seal 

 trade of the northern regions we have for centuries been fami- 

 liar ; but this trade must yield both in extent and importance 

 to that which more recently has been prosecuted in the south- 

 ern hemisphere. The fur seal has not indeed formed the sole 

 object of the southern trade, some of its congeners being of 

 equal or even greater importance ; more especially the pro- 

 boscis seal of Peron, which, from its magnitude, not less than 

 its nasal appendage, well merits its appellation of the sea 

 elephant. This species attains the dimensions of 20, 25, and 

 even 30 feet in length, with an unwonted proportional bulk, 

 thus equalling in dimensions half the size of the great Green- 

 land Whale ; and the oil obtained from it is of very superior 

 quality. Next however in importance to this giant of the 

 group unquestionably comes the fur seal, which has yielded 

 its thousands and tens of thousands sterling to the adven- 

 turous trader. 



This is not the place to dwell upon the origin or to trace 

 the history of the South Sea seal trade, but a few notices may 

 not be unacceptable. Soon after Captain Cook's voyage in the 

 Resolution in l77l> be presented an official report concerning 

 New Georgia, in which he gave an account of the great num- 

 ber of proboscis seals and fur seals which he had encountered 

 on the shores of that island. The information speedily tempted 

 several enterprising merchants to fit out vessels for the cap- 

 ture of these animals. With regard to the oil obtained from 

 the former, it has been stated, on most respectable authority, 

 that during a period of about fifty years, not less than 20,000 



Ann. Nat. Hist. Vol. 2. No. 8. Oct. 1838. g 



