TAME BIRDS. 175 



liave, occasionally, found time hanging heavy on their 

 hands, to them may be attributed the working of the 

 mountain, carrying such specimens as they pleased 

 to their homes, for gifts or sale to the various tribes 

 along the coast. The seals becoming scarcer every 

 year, and the increase of whale-ships rendering the 

 capture of the fish less a matter of certainty than 

 formerl}^, the bay fisheries were deserted, and ever 

 since it has been resigned to its original inhabitants, 

 except when some old and barnacled whale-ship 

 touches at it, or the schooners of the Maurii run in 

 for protection from the weather. IsTothing illustrated 

 to me the slight influence exerted by man here, more 

 strongly, than the fact of the smaller birds (those, 

 from their size, too insignificant for the attention 

 of the gunner), viewing man without the slightest 

 fear, flying around and around one, and alighting on 

 the person, as if desirous of forming an acquaint- 

 anc-e ; having had no experience of the refinement 

 of cruelty inherent to man, they do not fear him. I 

 do not wonder at the sealers and whalemen deserting 

 this vicinity when they found that their game had 

 left, as there is nothing either inviting or enticing to 

 induce a stay on these shores. The ground can 

 never be made serviceable for cultivation, as it is 

 broken and uneven to an extreme degree; scarcely a 

 foot square can be found without a variation in the 

 grade of its surface. 



We remained in this bay seventeen days, every 

 succeeding twenty-four hours seeing some new 

 creature, or meeting with some novel adventure. One 

 day a gust of wind would come rushing down the 

 mountains, and carry away our stern moorings, from 



