454 — Canadian Record of Science. 
a good sealing ground. After a while they seem to have 
been abandoned for long intervals and revisited with vary- 
ing success. An attempt was made to colonize them in 
1850, which failed after two years. During this period 
_ sealing was not pursued. It is impossible to ascertain with 
any degree of accuracy what number of skins they have 
supplied, but this much is known that even as lately as 
1885, when a party of shipwrecked sailors was found on 
these desolate islands, they were rescued by a party of 
white and half-caste sealers, who took them to the sealing 
grounds. One of them published in the Melbourne Argus 
an interesting series of articles, which showed that numer- 
ous “rookeries” were still full, and were systematically 
visited by these poachers, who were lowered over the high 
cliffs by their companions by means of ropes. Though I 
visited this coast a few years later, on a bright, sunny day, 
with a calm sea, I can imagine no more desolate or danger- 
ous scene, nora safer refuge from everything but human 
ingenuity. The fruits of this illicit sealing were gathered 
by a member of Parliament, and a still higher personage 
was not free from suspicion. For many years a close time 
had been proclaimed by the New Zealand Government, 
which, however, does not possess means adequate to the 
suppression of this illicit sealing. A short season was 
opened a few years since, when sealing expeditions were 
fitted out and all available seals, irrespective of age or sex, 
were slaughtered, in the hope that the closing of Behring 
Sea would cause a great rise in prices. As, however, the 
prices were very low, and the sealers settled disputes with 
the owner of the vessel by stealing the skins, the result 
was disappointing. I believe about a thousand skins were 
obtained at the various islands, chiefly at this group. 
Sea-lions, which are said to be quite useless, are very 
numerous at the Auckland Islands. 
Campbell Island, lat. 53°, was discovered by Hazelburg, 
in a whaling vessel fitted out by the Campbells of Sydney, 
in 1819. It is a bold, round island of small size, some hun- 
reds of miles from any other land, It has in times past 
