2358 The Zoologist — November, 1870. 



without imparting any precise idea of their whereabont. I make this 

 confession rather with a view to disarming the critic who might other- 

 wise delight in pointing out that I had erroneously placed Rifunsiri to 

 the east instead of the west of Todomosiri, or vice versa, and so elicit 

 great cachinnation from a pseudo-philosopher to whom the two places 

 were equally unknown. I can only say, therefore, that it was some- 

 where on the coast of Manchuria, and probably near Olga Bay, that 

 the first lieutenant of the "ActaBon" swopped his coat for a deer-hound. 

 He (the hound, not the lieutenant) had a splendid brush for a tail and 

 a fawn-coloured skin, and excited the admiration of the " Actseon " by 

 quarrelling with another animal of the same species over a fish's head. 

 It was love at first sight: the lieutenant determined that Quilee — that 

 was the name of the hound — should be his own. He produced his 

 dollars, but the poor fisherman refused ; not insensible to the value of 

 the proffered coin, but preferring his dog to the shining silver. Reck- 

 lessly the lieutenant stripped off his coat and offered to barter it for 

 Quilee : the coat conquered : the Manchu was overcome : the gold 

 lace and the brass buttons were too much for him : Her Majesty's 

 uniform was transferred to the Manchu and Quilee to the "Actaeon." 



Pass we on to the cemetery of seals in Aniwa Bay, to the north of 

 Cape Notoro, in Saghalieu. The bay is "composed" — I use the 

 author's expression — " of rounded rocks and drifted shingle." It is 

 here that the aged and infirm seals come to breathe their last in peace ; 

 here they seek refuge from the teeth of their fellow-creatures : shel- 

 tered by huge boulders of granite and concealed by grass and reeds, 

 they here find an open grave : their bones were strewn around, and the 

 only sounds that interrupted the silence of this " last rest" of seals 

 were the cries of wild swans passing high overhead and the caw of a 

 rook pursued by an unrelenting falcon. 



The little island of Todomosiri is situated on the north side of the 

 west entrance to La Perouse Strait: this is equally desolate with 

 Aniwa Bay : it is a huge mass of trachyte rising fifteen hundred feet 

 abruptly from the sea : here the only living objects were a large brown 

 gull feasting on offal, a lonely cormorant seated with outstretched neck 

 and expanded wing on a salient angle of black crag ; a little hawk 

 soaring high above the summit; oysters, mussels and limpets; and a 

 solitary Silpha : but I am omitting the seals : strange omission, it is 

 like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out. Seals were everywhere 

 diving and swimming and floating, some with their round bullet-heads 

 above the water, others far beneath the surface. The bones of some 



