656 MR. J. W. CLARK ON EARED SEALS, [ Dec. 7, 
and with Cone Point: with parts of the Passage Isles, and the south 
end of Clarke’s Island; and at these places only did I'see fur-seals 
m any number”? (p. cxxxili.). 
Waterhouse Island (on the north coast of Tasmania, west of 
Furneaux’s Island) “was almost covered with sea-birds and hair- 
seals ”’ (p. cli.). F 
At Three-Hummock Island (at the west extremity of the Strait) 
Mr. Bass landed. ‘‘ He had been obliged to fight his way up the 
cliffs of the island with the seals, and when arrived at the top, to 
make a road with his clubs among the albatrosses. . . . The seals 
were of the usual size, and bore a reddish fur, much inferior in 
quality to that of the seals at Furneaux’s Island” (p. elxxii.). 
In the ‘“‘ Recherche Archipelago”’ (south-west coast of Australia), 
says Flinders on his voyage in 1801, “‘all the islands seem to be 
more or less frequented by seals; but I think not in numbers sufti- 
cient to make a speculation from Europe advisable on their account ; 
certainly not for the China market,-the seals being mostly of the 
hair kind, and the fur of such others as were seen was red and 
coarse”? (i. p. 92). 
On Investigators Islands ‘the beaches were frequented by seals 
of the hair kind. A family of them, consisting of a male, four or 
five females, and as many cubs, was lying asleep at every two or 
three hundred yards. Their security was such, that I approached 
several of these families very closely, and retired without disturbing 
their domestic tranquillity or being perceived by them” (p. 125). 
Kangaroo Island abounded with Kangaroos and Seals. ‘They 
seemed to dwell amicably together. It not unfrequently happened 
that the report of a gun fired at a kangaroo near the beach, brought 
out two or three bellowing seals from under bushes considerably 
further from the water side. The seal, indeed, seemed to be much 
the most discerning animal of the two; for its actions bespoke a 
knowledge of our not being kangaroos, whereas the kangaroo not 
unfrequently appeared to consider us to be seals” (p. 172). 
The explorations of Péron, who visited Australia at the same time 
as Flinders, have left us several valuable notices on the Seals and 
Otarias observed by him. It is much to be regretted that his 
memoir of the family never appeared, and that his MSS. have 
been, so far as I know, lost sight of *. 
It is beside my present purpose to do more than refer to his very 
remarkable account of the Sea-elephants that he found on King Island 
in Bass’s Strait, and nowhere else. Flinders had already remarked 
an animal there which may, I feel sure, be referred to this species. 
On visiting Kangaroo Island (called by the French Isle Decrés) 
he found ‘‘a new species of the genus Otaria (O. cinerea, N.), 
which attains the length of 9 to 10 feet. The hair of this animal 
* After establishing the genus Otaria for “les Phocacés a auricules,” he 
speaks of “un travail trés-tendu que je prépare sur la famille” (‘Voyage de 
Découvertes aux Terres Australes. . . . pendant les années 1800-1804,’ par 
Péron et Freycinet [3 vol. 4to, Paris, 1816], ii. p. 37). 
t 1. ci. p. 206; Péron, /. ec. chap. xxiii. 
