430 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



While J. A. Allen (1905) regarded the fur seals of the Aus- 

 tralian and New Zealand seas as representing but a single form, 

 A. forsteri, those of South Australia and of Tasmania have 

 lately been given distinctive names. Whether these are 

 really separate races or species, or whether the characters 

 represent merely individual variations, seems as yet to be 

 uncertain. According to Wood Jones, A. forsteri has the 

 dorsal surface dark brown, grizzled with white-tipped hairs, 

 and the ventral surface reddish brown, with a fine red-brown 

 underfur. A distinguishing feature is said to be that the hind 

 foot has the prolongation of the middle three digits only 

 slightly shorter than the marginal digits, and the teeth have an 

 accessory cusp on only the front edge instead of on both fore 

 and hind margins as in the South Australian animal, which he 

 describes as A. doriferus. In the Tasmanian fur seal the large 

 size is apparently a supposed distinction; condylobasal length 

 of skull 280-290 mm. against about 250 in A. doriferus for 

 adult males. The three may be briefly considered as to status, 

 for although now more or less protected, they are reduced to a 

 small part of their former numbers; and while supposed to be 

 distinct, are not certainly identifiable when alive so that the 

 applicability of notes is uncertain. 



Hutton and Drummond (1923) have given a brief history of 

 the exploitation of the fur seal in New Zealand. When dis- 

 covered by Capt. James Cook on his first voyage, he noted 

 them on the south island and on his second voyage found the 

 fresh meat of seals killed at Dusky Bay a welcome addition to 

 the larder. It was not until 1792, however, that the first 

 sealing crew landed there and in the course of nearly a year at 

 Dusky Bay procured over 4,500 fur-seal skins. In the opening 

 years of the nineteenth century, with the decline of the sealing 

 in Bass Straits, a schooner from Sydney, New South Wales, 

 traded a cargo of 2,000 sealskins at Dusky Bay, Breaksea 

 Sounds, and Solander Island. Sir Joseph Banks, who had 

 accompanied Cook on his first voyage, was much impressed by 

 the numbers of fur seals: "The beach is encumbered with 

 their quantities, and those who visit their haunts have less 

 trouble in killing them than the servants of the victualling 

 office have, who kill hogs in a pen with a mallet." In 1806 he 

 added that on one vessel bound to London from Sydney there 

 were 30,000 sealskins! The result of this reckless slaughter 



