OCEANIC MAMMALS 453 



In his paper of 1887, Dr. J. A. Allen gave a general history of 

 this species, from which a few particulars are extracted. What 

 is doubtless the first mention of this seal is in Columbus's ac- 

 count of the second voyage, when in 1494, near the end of 

 August, he came to anchor near the rocky islet of Alta Vela, 

 off the southern coast of Hispaniola. Here several seamen 

 landed and killed "eight sea wolves, which were sleeping on 

 the sands." According to Dampier it was, in the eighteenth 

 century, the basis of a profitable seal fishery, and presumably 

 was so persistently slaughtered for its oil that it had become 

 already rare by the time that Gosse gave an account of it in 

 1851. Its geographical range, as indicated from the scanty 

 records, seems to have included the Gulf of Mexico and Carib- 

 bean Sea to at least as far south as the coast of Honduras, and 

 eastward to Jamaica, Cuba, and Hispaniola; thence it ranged 

 northward throughout the Bahamas. The many Seal Keys, 

 or perhaps too, Sale Keys and Lobos Keys, are place names 

 reminiscent of the former presence of these seals. Sir Hans 

 Sloane in 1707 ("History of Jamaica") wrote: "The Bahama 

 Islands are filled with Seals; sometimes Fishers will catch one 

 hundred in a night. They try o$ melt them, and bring off their 

 Oil for Lamps to the Islands." Evidently they were then 

 abundant and were being rapidly destroyed. At the Alacranes 

 Islands, about 75 miles north of Yucatan (called Alacran Reefs 

 on modern maps), Dampier found them in abundance in about 

 1675. He adds that "the Spaniards do often come hither to 

 make Oyl of their Fat." Englishmen from Jamaica also came 

 for the same purpose, and he mentions especially one Captain 

 Long, who, caught in a heavy north wind, nearly lost his vessel, 

 which was blown ashore. He later succeeded in repairing it, 

 however, and "filled all his casks with oil." Gosse's account 

 shows that at least up to 1846 there was a small colony at a reef 

 known as Pedro Keys off the south coast of Jamaica, where as 

 many as five were seen hauled out. In 1875, two were seen 

 near Cape Florida, and at the same time according to J. A. 

 Allen (1887) seals were said "to be found in great numbers at 

 some islands [Anina Islands] situated between the Isle of Pines 

 and Yucatan." At that period they were exceedingly rare on 

 the coast of Florida, but still occasional in the Bahamas. 

 "Their presence at Salt Key Bank, between Florida and the 

 Bahamas, as late as 1868-69, is attested by information re- 



