SEAL HUNTING IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. 401 



KERGUELEN LAND. 



This lar^e island, also known as Desolation Island, whicli lies in the 

 southern Indian Ocean, in about latitude 49° S., and in about longi- 

 tude 090 E., has long' been celebrated for the great numbers of sea- 

 elephants taken there. It has also furnished a small supply of fur- 

 seals. Sealing began here as early as 1830, and has continued till the 

 present time, maiidy for sea-elei)hants. Mr. H. M. Moseley, of the 

 Challenger expedition, states that in January, 1874, two of the whaling 

 schooners then at the island "killed over seventy fur-seals on one 

 day and upwards of twenty on another at some small islands oft" Howes 

 Foreland." "It is a pity," he adds, " that some discretion is not exer- 

 cised in killing the animals. * * * The sealers in Kerguelen Land 

 kill all they can hud." (Notes by a naturalist on the Challenger^ p. 189.) 



Eespectiug its still more recent history, the following may be cited 

 from the affidavit of Mr. George Comer, who spent live months there 

 in the winter of 1883 and 1884, obtaining six seals. He says further: 

 "About 1850 this island was visited by an American who practically 

 cleaned oft' the seals. The captain I shipped with, Joseph Fuller, vis- 

 ited the island in 1880 and took 3,000 seals, practically all there were; 

 and this was the increase for thirty years from 1850." Heard Island, 

 about 300 miles south of Kerguelen Land, which has been a noted hunt- 

 ing ground for sea-elephants, api)ears to have never been much of a 

 fur-seal resort. 



border's island, ANTIPODES ISLANDS, BOUNTY ISLANDS, AUCK- 

 LAND ISLANDS, ETC. 



About the beginning of the x>resent century the occurrence of fur 

 and hair-seals in considerable numbers along the ^, , ,„ .. 

 southwestern coast of Australia and 111 the vicinity 01 

 Tasmania and New Zealand was made known by Cook, Bass, Flinders, 

 Anson, Peron, Koss, and other early navigators.^ A little later, stim- 

 ulated by these reports, the adventurous sealers discovered an appar- 

 ently almost inexhaustible sui)ply of these animals on the numerous 

 small islands oft" the southeastern coast of New Zea- t> ., . t,, 

 land. Border's Island was discovered by Captain Pen- 

 dleton, of the American brig Union, of New York, in 1802. Although 

 he reached here toward the end of the sealing season, he secured some 

 14,000 fur-seal skins. He also visited Antipodes . ^. , ^ , , 



1111 11/./^ ,. j^ J. 1 11 Antipodes Island, 



slands, where he lelt a crew ot men to take seals ana 



await the return of the vessel from Sydney, New South Wales, which, 

 however, was lost on a vsubsequent cruise to the Feejee Islands. On 

 the receipt of this sad news at Sydney, " Mr. Lord chartered a ship aiul 

 proceeded with her to the island of Antipodes. At this place the 

 ofticers and crew whom Captain Pendleton had left there had taken 

 and cured rising of 00,000 prime fur-seal skins, a parcel of very su- 

 perior quality." (Fanning, Voyages, etc., j). 320.) 



Polack states that Macquaric Island was discovered by a sealing 

 master in 1811, who procured there a cargo of 80,000 ^, . ^ , , 



11. /W 1 1 -XT r? 1 1 nr-n \ Macqiianclsland. 



seal skins. (Polack, New Zealand, 11, p. 37b.) 



Mr. A. W. Scott states, on information furnished by a professional 

 sealer named Morris: "In New South Wales the sealing trade was at 



1 For a detailed compilation of these early accounts, see Clark (J. W.) in Free. 

 Zool. Soc. Loudon, 1875, pp. 653-658. 

 51 



