304 WILD DOGS. 



the south-eastern part of the island which marks 

 Sea Elephant Bay was very apparent as we ap- 

 proached. In the evening we anchored in seven 

 fathoms on the north side of Sea Elephent Rock, 

 which we visited the following morning. It is 

 nearly a mile in circumference, and 120 feet high, 

 clothed with a coarse wiry grass. A small vessel 

 if properly moored might find shelter under it from 

 easterly gales. We were surprised to find the time 

 of high water here nearly two hours earlier than at 

 Three Hummock Island ; the flood-stream came 

 from the southward. Of the number of wild doofs 

 that we had heard of as being on this island, we 

 saw only two. From the bones we found of others 

 it is more than probable that they live upon each 

 other at the seasons of the year when the mutton 

 birds having departed ; they would otherwise have 

 to depend solely for subsistence on the few shell 

 fish adhering to the rocks. This reminded me of 

 what I once witnessed on an island ofi" the eastern 

 coast of Patagonia. Several herds of deer had once 

 existed upon it ; but some persons having turned 

 a number of dogs loose, the original inhabitants were 

 soon destroyed, and the new-comers afterwards 

 devoured each other, so that when I saw them, but 

 a small remnant remained. The dogs on Sea 

 Elephant Rock, which were left by sealers, had 

 grown so wild that they would not allow us to ap- 

 proach them. I saw here some small penguins, a 

 bird we rarely met with in the Strait. 



This part of King Island is clothed with thick 



