OCEANIC MAMMALS 431 



was that as early as 1810 the numbers were seriously depleted, 

 but in that year the discovery of the Campbell and Macquarie 

 Islands "gave new life to the trade." Nevertheless the search 

 for seals was carried on relentlessly, and in 1824 ten vessels 

 were said to have secured 70,000 to 80,000 on New Zealand and 

 the adjacent islands. Two years later a vessel spent six months 

 cruising for new sealing grounds, but obtained only 449 skins. 

 Stewart Island was a specially favored spot. 



In former times fur seals were abundant on the Tasmanian 

 coasts, in Bass Straits, and along the islands in the bight of 

 South Australia. Peron saw them at Kangaroo Island in 1802-3. 

 The breeding season was from about November to April. 

 Sealing continued in these regions until a comparatively 

 recent date. Wood Jones, writing in 1925, states that the last 

 large haul of skins from Kangaroo Island and its outlying rocks 

 was made "nearly forty years ago [i. e. about 1885], and it is 

 very doubtful if a fur seal has been seen on the Island since 

 then." On six visits to the islands of Nuyts Archipelago and 

 the Investigator group he had not seen a single one, although 

 he was told of recent sealing there. He adds that "it is prac- 

 tically certain that the animals^still live on the inner Casuarina 

 Island, which was one of their great strongholds in the old 

 days, and from which only 13 years ago [1912] 20 fur seals 

 were said to have been taken." This island is now a sanctuary. 

 The fur seals were almost exterminated from Tasmania, "but 

 protection there has led to the re-establishment of some small 

 herds." It is said that on the coast of Western Australia it 

 still breeds in small numbers in the extreme southwest, off 

 Cape Leeuwin, and perhaps rarely on the Houtmans Abrolhos, 

 and that stray individuals have been seen as far north as 

 Shark's Bay (Shortridge, 1936, p. 745). While spending two 

 weeks on the Abrolhos in November, 1931, however, I saw no 

 sign of fur seals. It is said that in 1921 an expedition to the 

 Recherche Archipelago gathered 300 skins of a fur seal but 

 realized very little on them. They are not protected here and 

 no permit is required for taking them. "Doubtless on the out- 

 lying islands, which are very difficult of access, fur seals may 

 still be found, but unless strict measures are taken for their 

 protection they will soon disappear" (Hull, in Hanna, 1922, p. 

 14). It seems a pity that these remnants should not be pro- 

 tected and allowed to increase until the time when they can 

 be successfully maintained as a useful asset. 



