ii6 Cruise of the ''Alert.''' 



have been removed, the underlying fur is seen to be of a beautiful 

 golden yellow colour. The otters are obtained by sealers in a 

 great measure by bartering with native canoes (the Fuegians 

 catching them with dogs), and also by shooting them, as they 

 swim through the kelp close to the beach. Both the otter and 

 seal-skin are salted dry, — that is to say, each skin is spread out 

 flat, salt is sprinkled plentifully over the inside, and the skin is 

 then rolled up with the hair outside, and tied up into a round 

 bundle. The old fur seals are killed just as they are met with, 

 and without any regard to the preservation of the stock. The 

 sealers commonly call the females " claphatches," and the males 

 " wigs ;" the skin of the former is much the more valuable of the 

 two. The sea lions (another species of seal) are seldom meddled 

 with; but occasionally a sealer, in default of the regular article, 

 will kill them for the sake of the oil, and take some of the 

 hides, for which there is a certain demand for making " machine 

 belting." 



Buckley, the master of the Felis, told us that he had observed 

 that in the case of the fur seal there was an interval of only 

 one or two weeks between the date of parturition and that of 

 coupling, and that, in the case of the "hair seal," coupling took 

 place almost immediately after the young were brought forth. 

 If this be true, the period of gestation cannot be less than eleven 

 months. 



Buckley presented the captain with a young fur seal — a male, 

 six weeks old — which had been caught on the rocks, and nursed 

 carefully by one of his crew, an Italian seaman, who had been 

 • bottle-feeding" it with milk, and had taught it to answer to the 

 call of a whistle. It trotted about our decks in a most lively 

 manner, its hind feet, when trotting or walking, being turned 

 forwards and outwards in the manner peculiar to seals of its 

 genus. On whistling to it, it uttered a strange cry — half wail, 

 half bark — and came to the call like a dog. When taken up in 

 the arms and petted like a child, it lay quite still, closed its eyes 



