ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 201 



had been formerly employed in the Newfoundland fishery, not in less plenty than is 

 to be met with on the banks of that island. We caught also cavallies. gropers, 

 large breams, maids, silver lish, congers of a peculiar kind; above all, a black fish, 

 which we most esteemed, called by some, a chimney sweeper, in shape resembling 

 a carp. The beach, indeed, is everywhere so full of rocks and loose stones that 

 there is no possibility of hauling the seine: but with hooks and lines we caught 

 what numbers we pleased, so that a boat with two or three lines would return 

 loaded with fish in about two or three hours' time. The only interruption we 

 ever met with arose from the great quantities of dogfish antl large sharks which 

 sometimes attended our boats and prevented oixr sport. Beside the fish we have 

 already mentioned, we found here one delicacy in greater perfection, both as to 

 size and flavor and quantity, than is, perhaps, to be met with in any other part of 

 the world; this was sea crayfish; they generally weighed 8 or 9 pounds apiece, 

 were of a most excellent taste, and lay in such abundance near the water's edge 

 that the boat hooks often struck into them in putting the boat to and from the 

 shore. 



Strange contrast in sealing grounds. — Thus ends Chaplain 

 Walter's description of the plants, and the animals, and the fish of 

 Juan Fernandez; and I quote him in full, because I wish to emi^hasize 

 the decided difference in the temperament and constitution of the 

 northern, or Alaskan, fur seal from that of its southern relative, 

 which seems to have repaired to Juan Fernandez and Masafuera in 

 countless thousands, " millions," Dampier said, in 1()83, to breed in a 

 tropical climate, on an island infested by bands of wild dogs and the 

 waters surrounding alive with "large sharks!" Then, too, that the 

 good prelate should have found fish so abundant where such multi- 

 tudes of seals were aggregated seems strange; and it also occurs 

 rather odd to me that he should have rested content with Dampier's 

 brief description of the fur seal here, and passed the matter by, in 

 the abrupt reference which lie makes, declaring it superfluous to add 

 more than " other writers " have spoken of. 



The rookery of Masafuera: A description of the islet. — The 

 island of Masafuera lies off the coast of Chile in south latitude 33° 45', 

 west longititde 80° 46', just west of Juan Fernandez 93 miles. The 

 surprising number of over 480,000 fur-seal skins are said to have been 

 taken from it in a single season, some fifty years or so ago. Whether 

 this immense aggregate was slain there or not it is certain that no one 

 rookery in all the South Seas was of more importance. It is a high 

 and mountainous volcanic islet, triangularly formed, and about 7 or 

 8 leagues in coast circuit. The general character of the island seems 

 to be very much as I have indicated as characteristic of St. George, 

 only that a luxuriant growth of exotic shrubbery is found tliereon. 

 On the north side of the island is a low point of land upon which the 

 noted fur-seal rookery used to exist. "The seals," Carteret, in 1707, 

 says, " were so numerous that I verily think if many thousands of them 

 were killed in a night they would not be missed in the morning. We 

 were obliged to kill a noted number of them, as wlie'n we walked the 

 shore they were continually running against us, making at the same 

 time a most terrible noise. These animals yield excellent train oil, 

 and tlieir hearts and plucks were very good eating, being in taste 

 something like those of a hog, and their skins were covered with tlie 

 finest fur I ever saw of the kind." 



Anson's visit to Masafuera. — Lord Anson sent one of his vessels 

 over to Masafuera, for the purpose of surveying it thoroughly, while 

 he was lying at Juan Fernandez refitting, June to September, 1740. 

 Captain Saunders submitted substantially the following report, which 

 Chaplain Walter indorses as valuable, inasmuch "as upon this occa- 

 sion the island of Masafuera was more particularly examined than, I 



