Depletion of the Fur-Seal in the Southern Seas. 453 
is nOW SO rare an apparition as not to be recorded once in 
ten years. In the sounds of Western Otago, then the most 
prolific sealing ground, they are still occasionally found, 
being known to breed on a few very inaccessible rocks in 
that uninhabited region. Fifteen years ago Captain Fair- 
child, of the Government steamer Hinemoa, himself an old 
northern sealer, showed me his charts on which were 
marked several of these “‘ rookeries,’ but depletion has pro- 
gressed since, partly through the operations of the Maoris, 
who occasionally pass round the coast in whaleboats from 
Foveaux Strait, and partly from the fact that the coast is 
now much more visited and disturbed than formerly. 
Though the information which I have got together is of 
a fragmentary character, it sufficiently shows that sealing 
was an active pursuit in the southern part of New Zealand, 
and that numerous sealing vessels obtained full cargoes 
there, while for nearly half a century the few surviving seals 
have been pressed nearer and nearer to the point of exter- 
mination without being systematically pursued. The islands 
lying off the coast of New Zealand, however, have proved, 
relatively at least to their extent, vastly richer in seals than 
the mainland. Six groups of small islands lie to the south 
of the latitude of New Zealand.’ The Snares were dis- 
covered by Vancouver late in the eighteenth century. 
They lie sixth-three miles from Stewart Island. Seals are 
still found there in small numbers, and were, I have no 
doubt, once numerous, but the group is so very small that 
their extermination must have been an easy matter. The 
Auckland Islands, in lat. 50° 8., are about as long as the Isle 
of Wight, but much cut up by inlets, and with a precipitous 
southern and western coast, with numerous sea caves capable 
of sheltering seal ‘‘rookeries.” They were discovered in 
1810 by John Benton, a whaling captain hailing from Syd- 
ney, connected with the house of Enderby. They were 
found to be crowded with seals, and for many years afforded 
1 For further interesting particulars respecting these islands, see a paper by 
Mr. Chapman entitled ‘‘The Outlying Islands South of New Zealand,” Trans, 
New Zealand Inst.,’’ 1890, p. 491. 
