SEAL HUNTING IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. 305 



Capt. A, Delano, writing' of tlie same subject, says: "When tlie 

 Americans came to Mas-a-Fuero about the year 1707, and began to make 

 a business of killing Seals, there is no doubt but that there were 2,000,000 

 or 3,000,000 of them on tlie island. I have made an estimate of more 

 than 3,000,000 that have been carried to Canton from thence in the 

 space of seven years. I have carried more than 100,000 myself, and 

 have been at the place when there were the people of fourteen ships or 

 vessels on the island at one time killing seals." (Narr. ^^oy. and Trav., 

 1817, p. 300.) It is therefore scarcely a matter for surprise that in 1S07, 

 according to Captain JVIorrell (Voyages, etc., p. 130), "The business 

 was scarcely worth folio wing; . . . in 1824 the island, like its neigh- 

 bor, Juan Fernan<lez, was almost entirely abandoned by these animals." 

 In other words the Seals had become so nearly exterminated that there 

 were not enough left to render the pursnit of them profitable. In later 

 years the island has been visited at intervals by fur-seal hunters and 

 small catches obtained. As late as 1801 Capt. Frank M. Gafthey states 

 (affidavit) that on visiting the island for fur-seals he saw three or four 

 hundred, and took nineteen, showing that a few are still to be found at 

 Mas-a-Fuero. 



.TUAN FERNANDEZ. 



The island of Juan Fernandez, situated a few miles to the eastward 

 of Mas ii-Fuero, was formerly the home of immense nmubers of fur- 

 seals. Dampier, who visited this island in 1G83, says: " Seals swarm 

 as thick about this Island of John Fernando as if they had no other 

 place in the World to live in; for there is not a Bay or Itock that one 

 can get ashore on but is full of them. . . . These at John Fernando's 

 have tine, thick, short Furr; the like I have not taken notice of any- 

 where but in these Seas. Here are always thousands, I might say pos- 

 sibly millions of them, either sitting on the Bays, or going and coming 

 in tiie Sea round the Island ; which is covered with them (as they lye 

 at the top of the Water playing and sunning themselves) for a mile or 

 two from the shore. When they come out of the Sea they bleat like 

 Sheep for their young; and though they pass through hundreds of 

 others' young ones, before they come to their own, yet they will not suffer 

 any of them to suck. The young ones are like Puppies and lie much 

 ashore; but when beaten by any of us, they, as well as the old ones, 

 will make toward the Sea, and swim very swift and nimble; tho on 

 shore they lie very sluggisldy, and will not go out of our way unless 

 we beat them, but snap at us. A blow on the nose soon kills them. 

 Large ships might here load themselves with Seal Skins and Trayne 

 Oyl, for theyareextraordinary fat." (A New Voyage Round the World, 

 etc., 1097, pp. 89, 90.) 



Seal-hunting began at Juan Fernandez at the same time as at Mas-a- 

 Fuero, the two islands being but a few miles ai)art and the fur-seals 

 frequenting them belonging to the same herd. Owing to the early 

 settlement of this island (it had a population of 3,000, according to 

 Dehmo, in the year 1800) the seals probably found the island an un- 

 congenial resort almost befoi-e the sealing business fairly began, as 

 Delano, writing in 1800, says there were not then any seals on any 

 l^art of it. (Voyages and Travels, etc., 1817, p. 313.) Subsequently 

 the i.sland aiqiears to have been visited at intervals by sealers in search 

 of fur-seals, but always with ])oor success. Although not yet extinct 

 there (see affidavit of Capt. Frank M. Gaff'nay, who reports seeing a 

 few fur-seals there in December, 1801), the number left is too small to 

 I)ossess any commercial imj)ortance. 



