37 8 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



the harvest both of sea and land the apparition of a solitary whale in Portland Bay 

 is a phenomenon which excites a powerful sensation in the district. The Bay itself is 

 named after the Duke of Portland ; it is upwards of thirty miles wide at the entrance, 

 while its greatest indentation is between five and six miles from the chord of the 

 irregular arc formed by the coast. This consists chiefly of sandy hillocks, and the 

 country inland is densely-timbered, with occasional flat patches and swamps. Eighteen 

 miles from the coast a mass of basalt lifts itself one hundred and fifty feet above the 

 level of the sea which welters round its base ; it is exactly bisected by the one 

 hundred and forty-second meridian of east longitude, and is familiar to all mariners as 

 Lady Julia Percy Island. 



From its isolation and its difficulties of access this huge pillar, fissured and grooved 

 by the never-ceasing action of the elements, and perforated with caverns excavated by 

 the restless sea, has been selected by the gregarious seal as a place of sojourn during 

 two periods of the year. Hither these aquatic mammals resort by hundreds, recalling to 

 mind Poseidon's flock, and the passage in the " Odyssey " descriptive of old Proteus, as 

 the herdsman of that strange assemblage, classing them in groups of five. Here these 

 gentle, timid creatures, with such a curiously human look in their soft brown eyes, and 

 with such preternaturally acute senses of hearing and of vision, lie basking in the sun, 

 and living in perfect amity with such of the sea-fowl as make their nesting-places on 

 the rocks. Each family selects and appropriates its own exclusive little bit of territory, 

 and the mother brings forth her young upon a couch of sea-weed, or other marine 

 plants. Nothing can exceed the tenderness of the affection or the depth of the solicitude 

 which she exhibits for her offspring. This comes into the world fully developed and 

 covered with a thick soft fleece which prevents it from taking to the water. In a 

 short time this is exchanged for its future coat, and the grotesque little seal with its 

 dog's "head, its cat's muzzle, its short arms terminating in fins that look like hands 

 arrested in process of development, its valvular nostrils, its cropped ears and its soft 

 flute-like voice is conducted to the sea, where it receives its first lesson in swimming 

 and diving from its watchful parent, who seems to derive as much amusement from its 

 gambols as human beings do from the performances of a company of trained athletes. 

 But, in general, the seals on Lady Julia Percy Island are but little disposed to bodily 

 exercise. Their delight is rather that of the Laureate's " Lotos Eaters." : 



To watch the crisping ripples on the beach, 

 And tender curving lines of creamy spray 

 To lend their hearts and spirits wholly 

 To the influence of mild-minded melancholy. 



At the western extremity of Portland Bay which is admirably sheltered from the 

 gales on this side, although exposed to those which blow from the south-east is the 

 bold headland fronted by the little Lawrence Island, and known as Point Danger, 

 whence the cliffs curve round to the rugged promontory named after Sir William 

 Evans. From the summit of this headland a noble and extensive prospect is obtained, 

 and one that varies amazingly with the season and the weather. In the calm and 

 brightness of a midsummer afternoon, when the cliff expands its "broad bright side 

 beneath the broad bright sun;" "the lazy sea-weed glistens in the light; the lazy sea-fowl 

 dry their steaming wings; the lazy swells creep whispering up the ledge and sink again." 



