THE SEA ELEPHANT 197 



incredible hardships, and their reward after a successful 

 voyage worked out at something like ten shillings per week. 

 Only the hide and blubber were sought, the animal having 

 no fur. A bull Sea Elephant will furnish eight to ten 

 barrels of oil ; a cow rarely more than six barrels. 



' My own recollection of this miserable business is a brief 

 one/ says Frank T. Bullen, ' but quite lengthy enough 

 to make me thankful that I shall never repeat the experi- 

 ence/ He proceeds to relate particulars of a visit to 

 Auckland and Campbell Islands, where, provisions and 

 materials for building huts having been landed, the ship 

 sailed away ; it was no place for a vessel to linger at 

 anchor. Better by far face the utmost fury of the open sea. 



'We plunged into work of the hardest in order to get 

 things a bit shipshape ; but before we had been toiling an 

 hour we were all suddenly startled stiff by a most tremendous 

 roaring, as of a troop of lions newly landed. Coming 

 across a ridge of rock into view of a little exposed bay, 

 we saw at least a hundred of these huge Seals emerging 

 from the broken water and lumbering 1 shorewards. 



' We had been told that all we had to do was to smite 

 them fiercely on the nose, and they would fall an inert 

 mass at our feet, when we were to cut their throats 

 immediately. But somehow a sight of them did not seem 

 to inspire us with much confidence in our ability to carry 

 out these simple orders to the letter.' 



Presently, when the last of the mighty family had 

 heaved his huge bulk out of the surf and waddled after the 

 rest inland, the sealers, armed only with clubs and knives, 

 got between the animals and the water-line. Their loud 

 yells caused the creatures to come lumbering back to the 

 sea. ' Our chief faced the leader and smote him so felly 

 that the vast mass of the body collapsed like a burst 

 bladder and spread itself upon the ground. Immediately 

 we were all doing likewise, yelling like demons at the same 

 time.' 



But the hunters were not to come off scatheless. One 

 man missed his blow and his footing at the same time, and 

 putting his left arm out to save himself from falling, thrust 

 it into the monster's gaping jaws. ' Now the Sea Elephant 



