M. Duperrey's Mag^ietical Observations^ 4*c. 75 



vidual incapable of resisting an enemy active and provided 

 with means of defence. The whole species are extremely 

 gentle ; but the females are particularly remarkable for this 

 quality. They oppose nothing but their tears to the attack 

 of the hunters, and to the brutality of the males. 



The English fishermen calculate that the sea elephants live 

 about thirty years. They find every year great numbers dead 

 from old age or disease. The storms frequently dash them 

 against the rocks. Our naturalists were witness to a wreck of 

 this sort one night, when Le Geographe lost her anchors and 

 her sloop, and encountered the greatest perils. 



Other dangers attend them at the bottom of the sea. Upon 

 some occasions the fishermen report they have seen them un- 

 expectedly come from the bosom of the deep, apparently much 

 frightened, and many of them covered with enormous wounds. 

 They lose a great quantity of blood, and their terror and their 

 wounds prove evidently that they have been chased by one, 

 or several most formidable enemies. What can these terrible 

 adversaries be.? The fishermen unanimously agree that no 

 known animal could inflict wounds so large and so deep. 

 They can only suppose that these monsters live far from the 

 shore, and dwell in the depths of the sea, as they have never 

 been able to discover the smallest trace of them. 



They add, that they have no doubt it is to preserve their 

 young from these enemies that the trumpet-seal hinders them 

 with so much anxiety from going far from the shore, or to 

 dive too deep, as we have often observed. 



Aet. 'XIY .'■^Magnetical Observations on the Variation and 

 Dip of the Needle, made during" the Voyage of the Coquille 

 from Toulon to Port JacJcson, in 1822, 3, a?id 4. By M. 

 DuPEiiREY, Commander of the Expedition. Communicated 

 by Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, K. C. B. F. R. S. 

 London and Edinburgh. (Concluded from No. xii. p. 257.) 



The following observations on the variation and dip of the 

 needle were made in the voyage from Bayta to Tahiti, one 



