1873.] SEALS OF THE AUCKLAND ISLANDS. 751 



little attention to the Mammalia *. The French naturalists, who 

 spent ten days there, give a graphic description of their visit to one 

 of the bays frequented by the sealers. They say:— " C'est la que les 

 baleiniers leur font la chasse pour recueillir leur peau, qui a une valeur 

 assez elevee (20 fr. environ chaque), quoiq'ils ne soient pas de l'espece 

 appelee phoques a fourrure. On rencontre a chaque pas des cadavres 

 de ces animaux a, moitie' decomposes, et dont les cranes sont en o-e- 

 neral brise's ; nous^ en trouvames un, eutre autres, d'une taille gigan- 

 tique : ll avait e'te' tue quelques jours auparavant a, coups de lance 

 et sa tete e'tait intacte. Le Capitaine Robinson la fit couper afin 

 d en faire present a, M. Dumoutier qui la lui avait de'mande'e " f. 

 Shortly afterwards they caught another, taking pains to seize him 

 by a lasso, so as not to damage him, and carried him on board ship. 

 Nevertheless no mention of these animals occurs in the zoology of 

 the expedition, where Stenorhynchus leptonyx and Lobodon carcino- 

 phaya are the only Seals described. During the three weeks that Sir 

 J. C. Ross's Expedition staid at the Islands the botany was carefully 

 studied by Dr. Hooker, and some notes on the zoology are recorded by 

 Mr. M c CormickJ; but the latter gives not the slightest hint of the 

 existence of Seals or Eared Seals ; and, in the zoology of the voyage, 

 the Auckland Islands are never set down as a locality for any of the 

 Seals described. Between 1850 and 1852 the islands were occupied 

 as a whahng-station by the Messrs. Enderby, to whom they had 

 been assigned by the English Government ; but their business was 

 rather to make money by whaling than to record the existence of 

 any othermarine mammal. Lastly, on Dec. 30, 1863, the schooner 

 Urafton, ot Sydney, was wrecked upon the islands, where the 

 captain and crew were condemned to reside for twenty months. In 

 Captain Musgrave's very interesting journal § will be found by far 

 the most detailed account in existence of the habits of any species 

 of Seal. I have done my best to combine all the notices of import- 

 ance that are scattered through the pages of his narrative. 



He found that the rocky coast of the Auckiands abounded with 

 Seals ; in a narrow channel that ran from one of the harbours to 

 the sea, " we saw hundreds of Seals : both the shores and the water 

 were literally swarming with them, both the Tiger and the Black Seal • 

 but in general the Tiger Seals keep one side of the harbour, and the 

 Black Seals, which are much the largest, the other side We 



also saw a Sea-lion" (p. 7). A "Black Seal" is mentioned, one 

 of whose canine teeth was 3§ inches long, 1| inch in circumference 

 at the gum, and of- inches at the base (p. 66). 



One wouM expect to find on first reading this passage that the 

 * iiger Seals" were the Stenorhynchus leptonyx, a true Seal; but 

 * Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, by Charles Wilkes, 

 during the years 18^8-1842, vol. ii. p. 353. 



+ 'J°J a g e au Pole Sud et dans l'Oceanie sur les corvettes 1' Astrolabe et la 

 Zelee, Histoire du Voyage, ix. p. 110. 



J Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Keeions 

 during the years 1839-43, by Capt. Sir J. C. Eoss, vol. i. pp. 129-154 



18li6 CaSt " aWay ° n ^ Auckland Isles - B y Ca P to, ' n Thomas Musgrave. London. 



