Depletion of the Fur-Seal in the Southern Seas. 451 
The following entries of sealskins are recorded at Sydney. 
The Sydney Gazette, October 14, 1803, notes the arrival of 
the sealer Hndeavour, Captain Oliphant, with 2,200 seal- 
skins from New Zealand, six months’ out. The Hndeavour 
brought into Sydney from March 9, 1803, to May 28, 1804, 
9,514 sealskins, worth 20 shillings each, and the schooner 
Surprise, from March 11, 1809, to September 15 of the same 
year, 15,480. During the years 1803 and 1804 upwards of 
36,000 sealskins were obtained from the islands of Bass 
Strait, the slaughter being carried on without regard for 
sex or season. Some of the above figures probably over- 
lap, a8 my information does not always state where the 
seals came from, and it is evident that there are long gaps 
without information. 
The Scorpion, 14 guns, left England in 1803 with letters 
of marque. She captured two French whalers with full 
cargoes. Whether she got sealskins from them I do not 
know, but she entered Sydney early in 1804, after a visit 
to New Zealand, with 4,759 sealskins. Her master, Captain 
Dagg, leaves his name in Dage’s Sound, on the west coast 
of Otago. The sealer Sydney Cove landed a party at the 
South Cape (Stewart Island) in 1806. These men were 
murdered by the natives, save one who married a chief’s 
daughter and got to Sydney in 1820. In 1813 the schooner 
Governor Bligh, Captain Snow, brought to Port Jackson 
14,000 sealskins, after a sixteen months’ cruise about New 
Zealand. She also brought back ten men who had been 
landed there by a vessel which was to return for them, but 
was never heard of. This occurred again the same year, 
when the brig Perseverance brought away four men simi- 
larly left four years before at Solander Island, in Foveaux 
Strait. Her take is not mentioned. The fact of these 
crews being left shows that there were purties constantly 
at work. The figures are perhaps somewhat confused, but 
they probably altogether understate the results. They 
sufficiently show at least that there were then rich hunt- 
ing grounds on the coasts of Australia, Tasmania and New 
Zealand. 
