THE ANTARCTIC SEAL FISHERIES. 413 



only natural production of the soil is a strong- bladed grass, the length of which is in general about 

 2 feet. It grows in tufts on mounds $ or 4 feet from the ground. No land quadrupeds are found 

 here; birds and amphibious animals are the only inhabitants."* 



The sealing business at Scuth Georgia was most prosperous about the year 1800. In the 

 season commencing November, 1800, and ending in February, 1801, sixteen American and English 

 vessels took 112,000 fur-seal skins from this place. 



The island was not visited by sealers for many years, and as a result, the seals being undis- 

 turbed, began to increase in numbers. Since the year 1870 several cargoes of sea-elephant oil and 

 some fur-seal skins have been obtained there by American vessels. There seems no probability, 

 however, that there will ever again be as many seals here as was found in the early part of the 



present century. 



BOUVETTE'S ISLAND AND SANDWICH LAND. 



Bonvette's Island is east of South Georgia, in latitude 54 15' south, longitude 11' east, 

 about 1,200 miles south-southwest from Cape of Good Hope. It was first seen and named by Cap- 

 tain Bouvette in October, 1808. It is about 25 miles in circumference. The island is of volcanic 

 origin, and rises in one part to a height of 3,000 feet. On the western shore is a large number of 

 ice islands, some of them a mile or more in circumference. Captain Morrell secured a few hundred 

 fur-seal skins here in 1822, and many other American sealers obtained partial cargoes. 



Sandwich Land, a group of rocky islands, about 200 miles south of South Georgia, was fre- 

 quented by American sealing vessels prior to 1830, and partial cargoes of fur-seal skins and sea- 

 elephant oil obtained there. There is no large island in the group, but a series of volcanic rocks, 

 the more important of which are Candlemas, Saunders, Montague, and Bristol Islands, and South- 

 ern Thule. 



Captain Morrell visited Sandwich Land in 1823, and thus describes this region : "On Friday, 

 the 28th of February, the cheering cry of 'land ho!' resounded from aloft. This proved to be 

 Candlemas Isles, the most northerly islands of Sandwich Land; latitude 57 10' south, longitude 

 26 5!)' west (from Greenwich). These two islands are of no great extent, but one of them is of 

 considerable height, both being burning volcanoes, and the most western having burnt down 

 nearly to a level with the sea. We continued examining these islands towards the south, until we 

 arrived at the Southern Thule, where, on the northeast side of the westernmost island, we found 

 a good harbor. In this group we saw nine burning volcanoes fire in abundance, but no fuel for 

 the Wasp. Three of these islands had vomited out so much of their entrails that their surfaces 

 were nearly even with the water. We looked on these islands in vain for wood, of which we were 

 very much in want, as we had not made a fire on board the Wasp but once a week for the last 

 fourteen days, having with that fire boiled meat sufficient to serve the officers and crew for seven 

 days ; and this economical regulation we were obliged to adhere to until we arrived at Staten Land, 

 on the 24th of March. All the islands which constitute Sandwich Land are entirely barren. Those 

 parts which have not been consumed by internal fires are very high and covered with perpetual 

 snow; the rest is broken land. The westernmost of the Southern Thule is in latitude 59 35' 10" 

 south, longitude 27 42' 30" west. After having examined the islands of Sandwich Land without 

 discovering a single fur-seal and only about four hundred sea-elephants, together with about fifty 

 sea-dogs, we again directed our attention towards the Antarctic Seas."t 



TRISTAN D'ACUNHA. 



Tristan d'Acunha is a group of three islands situated in mid-ocean, nearly on a line from 

 Cape Horn to Cape of Good Hope, about 1,500 miles west by south of the latter, and 2,000 miles 



Weddell's Voyages, 18^5, pp. 53-55. tMorrell's Voyages, New York, 1852, p. 66. 



