710 MONACHUS? TROPICALIS WEST INDIAN 'SEAL. 



fell to contriving how to get away; a very difficult task to 

 accomplish, for it was 24 or 25 Leagues to the nearest Place of 

 the Main, and above 100 Leagues to Trist, which was the next 

 English Settlement. But contrary to their expectation, in- 

 stead of that, Capt. Long bid them follow their Work of Seal- 

 killing and making Oyl ; assuring them that he would under- 

 take at his own peril to carry them safe to Trist. This though 

 it went much against the grain, yet at last he so far prevailled 

 by fair Words, that they were contented to go on with their 

 Seal-killing, till they had filled all their Cask." The narrative 

 continues that by a to them lucky accident "two New-England 

 Ketches going down to Trist, ran on the backside of the Biff, 

 where they struck on the Eocks, and were bulged". Captain 

 Long and his crew assisted them to unlade their goods and 

 bring them ashore, in requital for which they helped him to 

 launch his own vessel, " and lading his Oyl, and so they went 

 merrily away for Trist." Captain Dampier adds, " The whole 

 of this Eelation I had from Captain Long himself." * 



How long the capture of Seals for commercial purposes con- 

 tinued after this date, or whether it was ever carried on at 

 other points in these waters, I have no means of determining, t 

 Owing to the limited area to which they were restricted, and 

 consequently their necessarily small numbers, it is evident that 

 they could not long have survived in force under such vigorous 

 persecution. 



HILL'S AND GOSSE'S ACCOUNTS, 1843, 1851. A description 

 of this Seal (and the first one, so far as I can learn) was pub- 

 lished, according to Mr. Gosse, by Mr. Eichard Hill, in the 

 "Jamaica Almanack for 1843." Mr. Gosse, in 1851, in his 

 work entitled "A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica," repub- 

 lished Mr. Hill's account, and added thereto further remarks 

 on the species, based largely on information communicated by 

 Mr. Hill. As Mr. Hill's description is nearly inaccessible, while 

 Mr. Gosse's book is by no means easy of access, I here tran- 

 scribe the whole account as given at length by Mr. Gosse, 

 under the heading "The Pedro Seal": u ln the Jamaica Al- 

 manack for 1843, Mr. Hill published a Memoir on a Seal inhab- 



~*Ibid., pp. 25-28. 



t Olafsen, iii his " Reise durcli Island," p. 284, refers to the Great Seal of 

 the Antilles, and cites " Joh. Sam. Hallen's Natnr-Geschiehte der Thiere, p. 

 593 und 581," as containing a further account. Hallen's work being inac- 

 cessible to ine, I am unable to state what information may be there found. 



