SEAL HUNTING IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. 403 



but it hi probable they were not overlooked by the enterprising- sealers 

 who, dm^iiig- the next fifty years, explored every nook and corner of the 

 southern seas in search of prey. Scores of voyages are simply credited, 

 in Mr. A. Howard Clarke's statistical history of fur sealing (already 

 cited), however, simply to the " Southern Seas." M, Oharles Velain, 

 who visited these islands in 1874, witli the French Transit of Venus 

 Expedition, reports that they were at that date still visited by consid- 

 erable herds of fur-seals. (Cf. J. W. Clark, Proc. Zool. Sue. London, 

 1875, p. Goo.) 



WE>ST COAST OF SOUTH AFRICA AND ADJACENT ISLANDS. 



As early as the year 1700, sealing voyages were made to the west 

 coast of South Africa, and a greater or less number of ti Af • 



fur-seals appear to have been taken here at intervals 

 from thfit time till the present. In October and November, 1828, Capt. 

 Benjamin Morrell cruised along the west coast fi-om the Cape of Good 

 Hope to Walwich Bay, in about 23° S., searching for seals. From his 

 narrative it appears that he first met with them at a small island in 

 latitude 31° 32' S., about half a mile off the coast. (Morrell, Voyages.) 



At Ichaboe Island, 8 leagues north of Angra Pefiuena, he found great 

 numbers of fur-seals, and " took about a thousand of 

 their skins in a few days." He s^jcaks of the island as 

 the resort of "multitudes of fur-seals." (//v/V7, p. 201.) Having taken 

 "as many Fur-Weal skins here as was iiracticable," he ^^ t , i 



1 /• 1 i^ji j-ni Ti T,ii Mercury Island. 



passed on a lew leagues larther to IMercur}^ Island (lax. 

 25° 42' S., long. 14° 58' E.), where he took about a thousand Fur-Seal 

 skins. At Bird Island, about 1 degree farther north, Birdisiami 

 he obtained "the skins ot 1,4(>0 fur-seal at one time, 

 although the landing was very bad." (7/>?V/., pp. 205,206.) "As the 

 sea.son (November) was not sufticiently advanced for the seals to come 

 up in their usual nund)ers on the ishmds and rocks" south of Walwich 

 Bay, he made an excursion into the interior and again visited these 

 islaruls about the end of December. He then took a few seals from 

 Bird Island, and made an attack upon those on Mercury Island. "The 

 rush of my little party," he says, "was siuniltaneous; every nerve and 

 muscle was exerted, and we had reached the opposite side of the rook- 

 ery, killing several seal on our way, when we fiiund that the other 

 party, under command of IVIr. Burton, liad been stop])ed in 'mid-course' 

 about the center of the rookery by the immense number of seal that be- 

 gan to pour down the steej) rocks and precipices like an irresistible tor- 

 rent, bearing down their assaihints,andtnkingseveral of the men nearly 

 into the sea with them. . . . Several nundred fur-seal were left 

 lifeless on the shore an<l rocks." Owing to a fatal accident to one of 

 his most valued men, due to a heavy breaker engulfing three of the 

 party, the islaiul, with its wealth of seals, was immediately abandoned 

 and the vessel returned directly to the Cai)e of Good Hope, having 

 taken, in all, about 4,000 seals. {Ibid., pp. 304-306.) 



In 1830 Capt. Gurdon L. Allyn, witli the sealing schooner 8parl\ of 

 New London, t'onn., visited Ichaboe Island, but arrived too late in the 

 season (January 14) to secure many fur-seals. He found the carcasses 

 of about a thousand from which the skins had been removed by sealers 

 who had preceded him the same season. He says, speaking of the 

 coast generally : " The coast was well sealed, and we could only glean a 



few from the roughest rocks We found a few Seals at 



each landing, .... and by the 6th of September had taken 



