1875.] MR. J. W. CLARK ON EARED SEALS, 653 
It was found to be inhabited by three French Malay fishermen, 
whose employers resided at Bourbon. They were visited every 
three or four months, and the fish they had caught and salted taken 
away. <A view of the island will be found in the ‘ Illustrated Lon- 
don News’ for August 19, 1871; but I cannot learn that any notes 
were taken of the zoology. 
St. Paul’s was selected by the French Government as a station 
for observation of the transit of Venus on Dec. 9, 1874. A good 
geologist, M. Charles Vélain, Attaché a la Faculté des Sciences, 
Paris, was sent out with the expedition. He has given a most 
interesting description of the geological conformation of both the 
islands. St. Paul’s is a vast crater, like that of Mauna-Loa in 
Hawaii, one side of which has been broken down; and the sea 
rushing in, has formed a splendid natural harbour, with, however, 
rather a dangerous bar across the mouth. It is interesting to note 
that at the date of Lord Macartney’s visit this bar stretched across 
the harbour so much above high-water mark as to be termed a 
“causeway,” and the volcanic forces were evidently much more 
active than they are at present: smoke was seen to issue from 
many parts of the island. 
Amsterdam Island, which M. Vélain believes to have been almost 
entirely unexplored up to the present time, on account of the dense 
vegetation with which it is covered, is volcanic, like St. Paul’s, but 
of a totally different shape, being a square mountain mass with pre- 
cipitous sides, from 1500 to 1800 feet high. ‘“Otarias (Otaria 
delalandei),”’ he says, “live at St. Paul’s Island and, above all, at 
Amsterdam Island in considerable herds”’ *. 
Il. New Zealand, Australia, and the adjacent Islands. 
Captain Cook, in his first voyage, off Cape Egmont, on the east 
coast of the North Island of New Zealand (Jan. 15, 1770), “saw a 
Sea-lion rise twice near the shore, the head of which exactly resem- 
bled that of the male which has been described in the account of 
Lord Anson’s voyage ” +. 
This may be supplemented by his account of what he saw at the 
same place on his second visit, June 1773 :— 
“In our excursion to the East, we met with the largest Seal I 
had ever seen. It was swimming on the surface of the water, and 
suffered us to come near enough to fire at it; but without effect ; 
for, after a chase of near an hour, we were obliged to leave it. By 
the size of this animal it probably was a Sea-lioness. It certainly 
bore much resemblance to the drawing in Lord Anson’s Voyage ; 
our seeing a Sea-lion when we entered this Sound in my former 
voyage increaseth the probability ; and I am of opinion, they have 
their abode on some of the rocks, which lie in the Strait, or off 
Admiralty Bay” tf. 
* “Tes Otaries (Ofaria delalande?) vivent a Saint-Paul, et surtout 4 Amster- 
dam en troupeaux nombreux” (Comptes Rendus de l’Académie, 1875, p. 998). 
+ Hawkesworth, ‘An Account of the Voyages &c.,’ vol. ii. p. 385. 
t Voyage towards the South Pole and round the world, Fourth Edition, vol. 
i. p. 124. 
