Sunday ij. 



NORTH WEST COAST OF AMERICA. 35 



phibious, as they generally frequent fandy bays, or the ^ "jjjA ^- 

 points of bays that are compofed of fmooth flat ftones. *- — --— * 

 A good fea elephant yields near half a ton of oil, which January. 

 is produced without boiling, the blubber is fo exceedingly 

 free : if put into cafks, the blubber will foon run to oil, 

 and afterwards it may be {trained off into other cafks ; 

 but this procefs being rather tedious where there are very 

 large quantities of blubber, captain Coffin informed me 

 they had difcovered a better and more expeditious method. 



They build a tank on fliore, of a fize fufficiently large 

 to contain any quantity of oil they expe6l to procure. 

 Over this tank a grating work is fixed by way of ftrainer ; 

 the blubber is then thrown on the grating, and weights 

 being put on it,, the oil is foon preffed out. Adjoin- 

 ing to the large tank is a fmaller one, into which the 

 oil is {trained a fecond time ; by this means it is ren- 

 dered perfedlly fine, and may be put into cafks at 

 pleafure. 



From the defcription given by the late captain Cook of 

 an animal he faw at New Georgia, I have no doubt but 

 it was a lea elephant ; and there is every reafon to fuppofe 

 they may be found at that ifland in great plenty : the lame 

 may be faid of Kerguelen's Land, where we touched 

 during captain Cook's laft voyage, and found a number of 

 thefe animals, which we then fuppofed to be fea lions ; but 

 this was certainly a miftaken notion, for they were very 

 tame, and killed with the greateft eafe, whilft the fea 

 lions met with at this place are quite furious, and ought 

 not to be attacked without great caution. 



*^: F 2 The 



