DEEVA BAT. 105 



strongly recommend him to take a trip to 

 Deeva Bay, and lie may rest assured lie will 

 come back a wiser man. 



On the 21st we were becalmed off Black 

 Point, and leaving the sloop there, we took 

 to the boats and rowed for about seven miles 

 up Deeva Bay, to where two good-sized islands 

 stretch several miles into the bay, the eastern 

 end of one of them being only separated 

 from a projecting point of the main shore 

 by a strait about fifty yards broad. To the 

 N. and N.E. these islands were connected 

 with the shore by several square miles of 

 " fast " * ice, of one winter's growth. Great 

 numbers of seals lay upon this sheet of ice, 

 taking advantage of a beautifully bright sunny 

 day to bask, but we found it next to im- 

 possible to shoot them : we tried a great many 

 times, but never could get nearer than about 

 300 yards. I do not think the seals saw us 

 or smelt us, because we tried going to leeward, 

 and we tried giving them the sun in their 

 eyes, and we walked and crept as quietly as 

 possible. I am convinced that the well-known 

 difficulty of getting within shot of a seal on 



* Ice attached to the shore is so called. 



