SEA-BEARS. 
175 
clouds. Around its base were huge, detached 
rocks, some of them four or five hundred feet 
high, one resembling a sugar-loaf, and another a 
rude arch. Within a little distance from the shore, 
numbers of sea-bears, of a reddish-brown colour, 
came up repeatedly and barked around the boat. 
The mad pranks and uproarious conduct of these 
stranore ursine creatures offered a striking contrast 
to the placid demeanour of the gentle Phocae, or 
common seals, which only raised their round heads 
above the water, wonderingly gazed around, and 
(juietly sank again below the surface. Shoals of 
black-fish rose up further off, baring their dark 
rounded backs ; while several right-whales were 
spouting in the far distance. Some fiying-fish 
leapt from the water, pursued by a large fish of 
the mackerel tribe, a noticeable fact, — for seals 
and flying-fish are not usually seen together. As 
we neared the island the wave-beaten limestone 
barrier, weather-stained and variegated with en- 
crusting lichens, towered up from the surface of the 
sea, crowmed with fir-trees, sycamores, and junipers. 
