252 RErORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



181 Rerordx of OhsrrraHoiiii on Far-Senl Life in Ike North Pacific Ocean, for flie Beli- 

 rinq Sea Commissiov, io be entered in a Seiyaratc Seal Lor/. 



1. Place of oacli recorded obsorvation (possilily, marked oft' on separate chart by 

 releronce niiiiihers). 



2. Toints to be noted in regard to seals: 



4i.) Whether playinc;-, resting, or travelling (if tra\'elling: (o) direction, (/?) pace, 

 (y) whether single or in schools). 



(ii.) (a) Sex, age, and size; (/i) whether accompanied by pnps or not. 

 (iii.) State of weather and sea at timers of observation. 



3. Obtain corresponding information from any sealing-schooners visited for any 

 immediately preceding dates, and generally' record any information applying to seal 

 life. 



This Memorandinn was commnnicated to the coiinnandiug ofhcers of Her Majesty's 

 ships "Nym])]ie," " Por]inise" and " Pheasant," wlio kindly cansed accurate observa- 

 tions to be made on the jioiiits indicated. 



The results of these observations are, so far as were cousidered essential, embodied 

 in our Report. 



6. — Extracts from Reportof the Scientific I\esnItsof the Explorinfi Voyage of Her Majesty's 

 Shij) " Challeiiiier," 1S7S-7G. 



" The caves (on Nightingale Island), with the sloping ledges leading np to them, 

 are frequented, as was said, by fur-seals. Four years before the visit of the expedi- 

 tion, 1.400 seals had been Icilled on the island by one ship's crow. Seals were very 

 much scarcer in 1873, but the island w.is visited regularly once a-year by the Tristan 

 people, as was also Inaccessible Island. The Germans killed only seven seals at 

 Inaccessible Island during their stay, but the Tristan people killed ibrty there in 

 December 1872." (Narrative, vol. i, part i, p. 261.) 



" I'^rom all sides of the precipitous black clift's cataracts fall over into the sea, and 

 water is found in numerous ponds all over the group. The islands* are frequented 

 by elephant- and fur-seals, although these are not so plentiful as formerly, and as there 

 is no lack of water, there is no danger of shipwrecked mariners dying of starvation. 

 The blubber of the elephant-seal and the skins of penguins, with tlie adherent fat, 

 furnish the material for tire, and the flesh of the seals and birds, the eggs of the 

 latter, together with the Kerguelen cabbage, form a nourishing diet, on which the 

 sealers residing at times on one or other of the islands have usually lived, and with 

 which they appear to have been contented." (Narrative, vol. i, part i, p. 321.) 



"Two of the whaling-Hchooners met with at the island t killed over seventy fur- 

 seals on one day, and u])\vardsof twenty on another, at some small islands off Howe 

 Island to the north. It is a pity that some discretion is not exercised in killing 

 the animals, as is done in St. Paul Island in Behring Sea in the case of the northern 

 fur-seal. By killing the young males, and selecting certain animals only for killing, 

 the number of seals nuiy even be increased ; \ the sealers in Kerguelen Island kill all 

 they can iind." (Narrative, vol. i, part i, p. 35.5.) 



"In 18(il!, when Her Majesty's ship 'Topaze' called at the island, $ there were only 

 ten inhabitants, and the ' Challenger' || found forty or fifty under the contrtd of a 

 (;hilean, who paid 200/. a-year rent to the Chilean Government, and who had a few 

 men also at Mas-a-Fuera island ; he was engaged principally with the hunting of the 

 fur seals." (Narrative, vol. i, part ii, p. 827.) 



"The steam pinnace left Gray Harbour^ at 4 a. m. with several n.aturalists and 

 oflicers, and joined the ship in the evening at Port Grappler. On the way, landing 

 was ett'ected at several spots, and a number of birds were i>rocnred; a very large 

 number of fur-seals (Arciocephalus) were seen, and six were shot, the skins and skele- 

 tons of which were j>reserved." (Narrative, vol. i, part ii, p. 865.) 



"In the narrative of the voyage it is stated that fur-seals frequented Nightingale 

 Island, one of the Tristan da Cunlia group; the Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Island, 

 Juan Fernandez, the Messier Channel, and Elizabeth Island, in the Strait of Magel- 

 lan. Specimens of eared seals, which did not possess the elongated concave palate 



* Crozet Islands, Penguin or Inaccessible Island, visited 1873-74. 



t Kerguelen Island. 



t J. A. Allen.— The eared seals. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. ii, pp. 1-88, 1870-71. 



^ .Juan Fernandez. 



II Visited by "Challenger," 1875. 



il Visited by "Challenger," January 1876. 



