76 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Attacks on the dead ; both men and animals. 



thongs of our shoes. If we lay down as if in- 

 tending to sleep, they came and smelt at our 

 noses, to find whether we were dead or alive. 

 On our first arrival, they bit off the noses, fin- 

 gers, and toes of our dead, while we were pre- 

 paring the grave; and thronged in such a man- 

 ner about the sick and infirm, that it was with 

 difficulty we could keep them off. 



" Every morning we saw these audacious ani- 

 mals, patrolling on the strand among the sea- 

 lions and sea-bears; smelling aft such as were 

 asleep, to discover whether some of them might 

 not be dead : if that happened to be the case, 

 they proceeded to dissect him immediately, and 

 soon afterwards all were at work in dragging the 

 parts away. Because the sea-lions, sometimes in 

 their sleep, overlay their young, the foxes every 

 morning examined the whole herd, one by one, 

 as if conscious of this circumstance; and imme- 

 diately dragged away the dead cubs from their 

 dams. 



" As they would not suffer us to be at rest 

 either by night or day, we became so exasperated 

 against them that we killed them, young and old, 

 and harassed them by every means we could de- 

 vise. When we awoke in the morning, there 

 always lay two or three that had been knocked 

 on the head the preceding night; and I can 

 safely affirm, that during my stay upon the 

 island, I killed above two hundred of these ani- 

 mals with my own hands. On the third day 



