2366 The Zoologist — November, 1870. 



reproachfully at you on shop-boards and out of windows. In short, 

 the whole town was filled with evidences of the thriving trade by 

 which the inhabitants gained their living." — P. 171. 



Proceeding to Dagelet Island, our author bears willing testimony to 

 the fidelity of La Perouse's description : this island consists chiefly of 

 a single mountain peak clothed with trees from the shore to the summit. 

 Here the doctor's admiration was divided between the scenery and 

 the sea-bears. 



" We saw the grand central peak towering four thousand feet above 

 us, partially enveloped in clouds. Around its base were huge detached 

 rocks, some of them four or five hundred feet high, one resembling a 

 sugar-loaf, and another a rude arch. Within a little distance from the 

 shore numbers of sea-bears, of a reddish brown colour, came up re- 

 peatedly and barked around the boat. The mad pranks and uproarious 

 conduct of these strange ursine creatures offered a striking contrast to 

 the placid demeanour of the gentle Phocae, or common seals, which only 

 raised their round heads above the water, wonderingly gazed around, 

 and quietly sank again below the surface. Shoals of black fish rose 

 up further ofl^, baring their dark rounded backs ; while several right 

 whales were spouting in the far distance. Some flying fish leapt from 

 the water, pursued by a large fish of the mackerel tribe, a noticeable 

 fact, for seals and flying fish are not usually seen together." — P. 174. 



It is remarkable that La Perouse, who described this beautiful island 

 so truthfully, never landed there. One would have thought the tempta- 

 tion too great to be resisted : be this as it may, it is pretty certain that 

 none of the officers of the " Boussole" weut ou shore, and it appears 

 that Mr, Adams and his brother oSicers were the first Europeans who 

 had ever set foot on the island. They made their way by dried-up water- 

 courses up the sides of the mountain, and observed in this distant land 

 the common wild thyme, the yellow stone-crop, the figwort, junipers 

 and sycamores, while the familiar cormorants, hawks, gulls, pigeons, 

 blackbirds and sparrows were the only birds, and the only indication 

 of a mammal was the skull of a cat. 



A similarly British character pervades the herbage in a charming 

 little bay on the Manchurian coast, which was next examined. Cattle 

 and horses were grazing in a pasture composed of birds-foot trefoil 

 and grasses not to be distinguished from those of England ; the very 

 dandelion was the same, and in the deposits left by the earth were 



