AMPHIBIOUS CARNIVORA. 93 



for the peculiar excellency of its fur; and for more 

 ample details on this point we refer our readers to 

 our chapter upon the Otaria Falklandica, and also 

 to a more extended paper on the subject which will 

 be found elsewhere ;* simply remarking, that it is a 

 matter of considerable national importance. The 

 time was when cargoes of those skins yielded five 

 or six dollars apiece in China; and the present price 

 in the English market averages from 30 to 50 shil- 

 lingsf per skin. The number of skins brought off 

 from Georgia cannot be estimated at fewer than 

 1,200,000; the Island of Desolation has been equally 

 productive ; and in addition to the vast sums of 

 money which these creatures have yielded, it is cal- 

 culated that several thousand tons of shipping have 

 annually been employed in the traffic.J 



But whilst we indulge the hope that we may have 

 done some little service by exciting attention to the 

 source of this fur, and publishing the first represen- 

 tation of the animal which yields it, that has, as 

 such, seen the light, yet we are far from being 

 satisfied that much does not still remain to be done. 

 It is a curious fact, that whilst the Americans were 

 for many years most successfully prosecuting this 

 trade, England was not profiting by it, and though 

 quantities of the fur-Seal-skin were brought home, 

 " the furriers in England had not the method of dress- 



See Annals of Natural History, No. for October 1838, Vol. 

 II. 81. 



f Encyc'op. Brit. Last Edit. vol. x. p. 264. 

 I Weddell, 54. 



