134 GENERAL REMARKS ON SOUTHERN COAST 



gained by the honest sweat of the brow. Among the birds 

 to disappear first will be the lyre-bird, and several of the 

 brilliantly hued lories and cockatoos. 



No Australian mammals have suffered more from the 

 continual pursuit of man than the seals, Otaria lobata and 

 Otaria forsteri, the only two species of this animal, I 

 believe, which inhabit the coasts of our continent. I 

 expected to see something of the first named, commonly 

 called the hair-seal, which used to be very common in 

 King George's Sound and in Bass's Strait ; but if it is not 

 entirely exterminated, not more than a few odd ones remain 

 either in King George's Sound or in the Straits. As long 

 ago as the year 1840 the seals were becoming scarce in 

 Bass's Strait. The islands in that channel were occupied 

 by a race of men known as Straitsmen. Each assumed a 

 territory to himself — usually an entire island — where he 

 lorded it as an absolute king. His subjects were a harem 

 of native women from the continent or Tasmania, and a 

 few half-breeds born of these unions. These blacks were 

 employed by their white lords to capture the seals, and 

 as they were expert at the work, the animals rapidly 

 diminished in number. No respite was granted to the 

 unfortunate animals, nor was the breeding season respected, 

 and the result is that a seal in Bass's Strait is now as 

 remarkable a sight as one on the coast of Cornwall. Truly 

 an odd one is occasionally seen, and that is all, I believe. 



Fur-seals (O.forsteri) were found in the Straits, as well 

 as hair-seals (O. lobata), and the former may occasionally 

 be seen on the retired portions of the coast of my native 

 colony ; but the seal-rocks near Sydney, and the Port 

 Stephen district, have long been entirely forsaken by these 

 animals. 



No fur-seals have ever been reported from the south- 

 west coast of Australia ; it is the hair-seal that inhabits 

 that region, and though it is of inferior value commercially 

 to the fur-seal, it has been much sought after. According 

 to the reports of many whalers with whom I have spoken, 

 the hair-seal has been seen, in limited numbers, along the 

 entire coast of the Great Bight. That these reports are 



