1875.] MR. J. W. CLARK ON EARED SEALS. 651 
a little to the north of the usual course of vessels bound to the latter 
country. In consequence they have, no doubt, been frequently 
visited ; and in most voyages some reference, usually a slight one, is 
made to them *; but few detailed accounts are to be met with. In 
the very interesting narrative of Captain Cox’s voyage, however, the 
following description occurs :— 
‘At half past one in the afternoon of the 29th [ May, 1789], we 
saw the Island of Amsterdam, bearing north-east by east; and at 
half past eight at night came to an anchor .... As in all pro- 
bability the Mercury is the first English vessel that ever anchored 
at this Island, a particular description of it may be interesting to the 
Gariouss 53: s 
“On our first landing, we found the shore covered with such a 
multitude of Seals, that we were obliged to disperse them before we 
got out of the boat; there were besides several Sea-lions or wolves, 
of a most enormous size and tremendous appearance, one of them 
that we measured being twenty-one feet in length, and nearly as 
much .in circumference. These animals are of a dirty white, or 
stone colour, very inoffensive, and so unwieldy and lazy as not to 
move at the approaeh of any one, unless attacked; when they 
retreated towards the sea backwards, with their mouths open and 
shaking their heads, but without making any noise. Some of them 
were very difficult to kill; for notwithstanding they had received 
several musket-balls in their heads and down their throats, and 
were wounded in different parts of the body with half-pikes, so that 
the blood came from them in torrents, yet they found means to 
escape into the sea; one of them, however, was killed at the first 
shot with a single ball, which, I suppose, penetrated the brain. 
The Sea-lions greatly resemble the Seal in shape, and, like them, 
are furnished with four feet or fins; the two hindermost of which 
they sometimes carry erect so as to resemble a tail. - 
* * * * * % 
“It being very clear early in the morning, we plainly discerned the 
Island of St. Paul’s from the quarter-deck, bearing uvorth north- 
east, distant seventeen leagues. 
* * * * * * 
“We procured here a thousand Seal-skins of a very superior 
quality while we remained at the Island of Amsterdam, besides 
several casks of good oil for our binnacles and other purposes”’+. 
Cox’s Voyage was not published till 1791; but attention had been 
already drawn by others to the profit that might be derived from 
these islands, as is shown by a letter from the master of the 
‘ Britannia,’ the first vessel that ever made a whaling-cruise in the 
South Sea, to his owners the Messrs Enderby, dated Nov. 29, 1791, 
narrating an attempt he had made “to run down to it {Amsterdam 
* As in Flinders’s ‘ Voyage to Terra Australis,’ 4to, London, 1815, i. p. 46. 
t ‘Observations &c., made duririg a Voyage to the Islands of Teneriffe, Am- 
sterdam, &c., in the brig Mercury, commanded by Henry Cox, Esq.,’ by Lieut. 
George Mortimer, 4to, London, 1791, p. 10. 
