186 cook's SECOND VOYAGE JAN. 



of the plant matted together. Among these hillocks 

 are a vast number of paths made by sea-bears and 

 penguins, by which they retire into the centre of the 

 isle. It is, nevertheless, exceedingly bad travelling ; 

 for these paths are so dirty that one is sometimes up 

 to the knees in mire. Besides this plant, there are a 

 few other grasses, a kind of heath, and some celery. 

 The whole surface is moist and wet, and on the coast 

 are several small streams of water. The sword-grass, 

 as I call it, seems to be the same that grows in Falk- 

 land isles, described by Bougainville as a kind of 

 gladiolus, or rather a species of gramen,* and named 

 by Pernety, corn -flags. 



The animals found on this little spot are sea-lions, 

 sea-bears, a variety of oceanic and some land birds. 

 The sea-lion is pretty well described by Pernety; 

 though those we saw here have not such fore-feet or 

 fins as that he has given a plate of, but such fins as 

 that which he calls the sea-wolf. Nor did we see any 

 of the size he speaks of; the largest not being more 

 than twelve or fourteen feet in length, and perhaps 

 eight or ten in circumference. They are not of that 

 kind described, under the same name, by Lord An- 

 son ; but, for aught I know, these would more pro- 

 perly deserve that appellation ; the long hair with 

 which the back of the head, the neck and shoulders, 

 are covered, giving them greatly the air and appear- 

 ance of a lion. The other part of the body is cover- 

 ed with a short hair, little longer than that of a cow 

 or a horse, and the whole is a dark brown. The 

 female is not half so big as the male, and is covered 

 with a short hair of an ash, or light dun colour. They 

 live, as it were, in herds, on the rocks, and near the 

 sea-shore. As this was the time for engendering as 

 well as bringing forth their young, we have seen a 

 male with twenty or thirty females about him, and 

 always very attentive to keep them all to himselfi and 



* See English Translation of Bougainville, p. 51. 



