THE-ANTAKCTIC SEAL FISHERIES. 425 



abundant the vessel proceeded to Border's Island, where some 14,000 skins were taken and sold at 

 Sydney. In a further search for seals the Union visited the Antipodes and left a crew of men there 

 to take seals and await the return of the vessel, but she was lost on a southern cruise and the men 

 on the island were rescued by an English vessel. They had taken some 60,000 skins, which were 

 carried to China by a vessel chartered at Sydney. (See p. 446.) 



" Auckland's Group " says Captain Morrell, " as it is called in the charts, is a cluster of islands, 

 only one of which is large enough to deserve the name, and that is 25 miles in length from north 

 to south, and 15 in width from east to west. It is situated about 250 miles south of New Zealand, 

 and as many leagues southeast of Van Dieman's Land, being in the South Pacific Ocean, in lat- 

 titude 51 south, longitude 106 20' east. It was discovered with its surrounding islets by Capt. 

 A. Bristow, in 1806. It is moderately elevated, the highest points being about 1,500 feet above 

 the level of the sea. 



* * * "In the year 1823 Capt. Eobert Johnson, in the schooner Henry, of New York, took 

 from this island (Auckland) and the surrounding islets about 13,000 of as good fur-seal skins as 

 were ever brought to the New York market. He was then in the employment of Messrs. Byers, 

 Eogers, Mclntyre & Nixon, who fitted him out on his second voyage in the Henry, in the most com- 

 plete and liberal manner, in the year 1824. From this voyage he never returned. He was last seen 

 at the south cape of New Zealand in the following year, having lost three men, who were drowned at 

 Chatham Island. Captain Johnson and the remainder of his crew were then in good health, and 

 had 1,700 hundred prime fur-seal skins on board the Henry. My informants further stated that the 

 Henry left New Zealand on a cruise to the south and east in search of new lands between the 

 sixtieth and sixty -fifth degree of south latitude, and as he had never been heard of since leaving 

 New Zealand it is very probable that he made discovery of some new islands near the parallel of 

 sixty, on which the Henry was shipwrecked. 



" Although the Auckland Isles once abounded with numerous herds of fur and hair seal, the 

 American and English seamen engaged in this business have made such clean work of it as 

 scarcely to leave a breed; at all events, there was not one fur-seal to be found on the 4th of Jan- 

 uary, 1830. We therefore got under way on the morning of Tuesday, the 5th, at 6 o'clock, and 

 steered for another cluster of islands, or rather rocks, called 'The Snares,' 180 miles north of Auck- 

 land's group, and about 60 miles south of New Zealand. 



"This cluster of craggy rocks is in latitude 48 4' south, longitude 166 18' east; extending 5 

 miles in the direction of east-northeast and west-southwest. They were first discovered by Van- 

 couver, who gave them a name expressive of their character as being very likely to draw the 

 unwary mariner into alarming difficulties. We searched them in vain for fur-seal, with which they 

 formerly abounded. The population was extinct, cut off root and branch by the sealers of Van 

 Diemen's Land, Sydney, &c."* 



The Bounty Isles were discovered by Lieut. William Bligh, in the English vessel Bounty, Sep- 

 tember 19, 1788, in latitude 47 44' south, and longitude 179 7' east. They are thirteen in num- 

 ber ; are 145 leagues east of the Traps, which are near the south end of New Zealand. Capt. 

 George F. Athearn states that no seal skins have been taken from these islands in recent years. 

 Captain Biscor, in the brig Tula, in 1832, visited them for the purpose of taking seals, but it is said 

 with very indifferent success. Lieutenant Bligh describes these isles as of small extent being only 

 3J miles from east to west, and about half a league from north to south. Their number, including 

 the smaller ones, is thirteen. The most western of the isles is the largest. They are sufficiently 



* Morrell's Voyages, p. 363. 



