758 MR- J. W. CLARK ON THE EARED [Nov. 18, 



party or' men, some to kill Seals, others to catch or kill birds, fish, 

 or what came in our way. To find the former it mattered not 

 where we landed ; for the whole shore was covered with them ; and 

 by the noise they made, one would have thought the island was 

 stocked with cows and calves. On landing we found they were a 

 different animal from Seals, but in shape and motion exactly re- 

 sembling them. We called them Lions on account of the great 

 resemblance the male has to that beast. Here were also the same 

 kind of Seals which we found in New Zealand, generally known by 

 the name of Sea-bears ; at least we gave them that name. They 

 were in general so tame, or rather stupid, as to suffer us to come near 

 enough to knock them down with sticks ; but the large ones we shot, 

 not thinking it safe to approach them " 



On the following day he continues his account : — "The old Lions 

 and Bears were killed chiefly for the sake of their blubber or fat to 

 make oil of; for, except their haslets, which were tolerable, the flesh 

 was too rank to be eaten with any degree of relish ; but the young 

 cubs were very palatable, and even the flesh of some of the old 

 lionesses was not much amiss ; but that of the old males was 

 abominable." 



Again, after describing the Sea-lion more in detail (p. 203), he 

 proceeds : — " The Sea-bears are not so large, by far, as the Lions, 

 but rather larger than a common Seal. They have none of that 

 long hair which distinguishes the Lion. Theirs is all of an equal 

 length, and finer than that of the Lion, something like an Otter's, 

 and the general colour is that of iron-grey. This is the kind which 

 the French call Sea-wolves, and the English Seals ; they are, how- 

 ever, different from the Seals we have in Europe and -North- 

 America." 



The existence of two Eared Seals at Cape Horn is evident from 

 these descriptions, of which the Sea-lion is Otaria jubata, and the 

 other (a small grey Seal, apparently a Fur-Seal, from the comparison 

 of its hair to that of an Otter) is, I think, in all probability the 

 Fur-Seal of the Fa\k\&nds(Otariafa!klandica = Euotaria nigrescens, 

 Gray); and Dr. Gray has identified skulls from Desolation Island, 

 which was one of the principal stations of the sealers in former days *, 

 on the S.W. coast of Patagonia, with this species f. No succeeding 

 voyager has, so far as I have been able to discover, mentioned the 

 existence of a third Seal at Cape Horn. It will be most interesting 

 to discover whether Otaria hookeri is restricted to the Auck- 

 lands, or whether it extends to any part of New Zealand or Aus- 

 tralia. 



If I am right in my opinion that Otaria hookeri is not found 

 at Cape Horn, the identification of it with the Eared Seal of Pen- 

 naut i, the Phoca flavescens of Shaw, and the Otaria Jlavescens 

 of Desmarest, falls to the ground. Pennant's specimen came from 

 the Straits of Magellan ; it formed part of Sir Ashton Lever's 



* Hamilton, Ann. & Mag. of Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 82. 



t Supplement to Cat. of Seals and Whales, p. 21. 



} Natural History of Quadrupeds. 3rd ed. 1793, vol. ii. p. 278. 



