Saldanha Bay and its Bird-Islands. 79 



VI. — Saldanha Bay and its Bird-Islands. By W. L. Sclatek, 

 Director of the South African Museum. 



About seventy miles north of Table Bay, on the western 

 coast of Cape Colony, lies the magnificent land-locked arm 

 of the sea known as Saldanha Bay. Completely sheltered 

 from every wind, with an ample depth of water and an area 

 for anchorage sufficient to accommodate the bulk of the 

 British Navy, it has one drawback, the scarcity of fresh 

 water, which has hitherto prevented any great use being 

 made of it as a harbour. 



Joris van Spilbergen, a Dutch navigator who sailed from 

 Zeeland in 1601, first discovered this bay, and by a mis- 

 apprehension attached to it the name of the Portuguese 

 Admiral, Saldanha, whoa hundred years previously, in 1503, 

 had been the first to enter Table Bay and to ascend Table 

 Mountain. 



For the first hundred years after its discovery and until 

 Spilbergen's voyage Table Bay had been known as Saldanha 

 Bay, and did geographers attach the same importance to 

 " priority " in nomenclature as do some of our ornithological 

 friends, there is no doubt that the old name of Saldanha 

 would be revived for our present Table Bay, while a new- 

 title would have to be invented and applied to the present 

 Saldanha Bay. Even in the time of Van Riebeck, who 

 founded the settlement at the Cape in 1652, Saldanha Bay 

 and its islands were noted for the abundance of their sea- 

 birds ; and the old records often refer to expeditions made 

 there to procure a supply of eggs, which were used for con- 

 sumption at the settlement, while seal-skins obtained by the 

 slaughter of the Cape Seal {Arctocephalus pusillus) were also 

 collected and found to be a valuable article of export. 



Probably the first naturalist who visited Saldanha Bav 

 was Levaillant, the well-known French traveller and orni- 

 thologist. Soon after his arrival at the Cape, in 1781, he 

 proceeded to Saldanha Bay on board the ' Middelburg/ one 

 of the ships of the Dutch fleet which was ordered that 

 year to retire there to avoid an English expedition under 



