85 
1 1 With the productions of the sea we were not much more ac- 
quainted, which is rather to be attributed to our want of skill as 
fishermen than to its want of bounty. Some of the few fish we caught 
were very excellent, particularly of the larger sort; one much resem- 
bling the snook, and another the calipevar of Jamaica, both of high 
flavour; as was a kind of fish, not unlike, nor inferior in quality to, 
the English red mullet. 1 These with the common white mullet, rock 
fish, mackerel, herrings, and a variety of small fish, were those we 
procured, though not in any abundance. 
“Whilst on the coast, whales and seals 2 were frequently playing 
about the ship; of the latter we saw about a score at one time on 
Seal Island. The little trouble these animals took to avoid us indi- 
cated their not being accustomed to such visitors. The throat and 
belly of these seals, which were of a large sort, were nearly white; 
between the head and shoulders the neck rises in a kind of crest, 
which, with the back, was of a light brown colour; their hair was 
exceedingly coarse, the carcase very poor, and afforded little 
blubber, which, however, may be imputable to the season. 
“Reptiles and noxious animals seemed by no means to be num- 
erous, as only two or three yellow and bronze-coloured snakes were 
seen, which were good eating. These, with a few lizards of the com- 
mon sort, and some about eight or nine inches long of a thick clumsy 
make, dark colour, and altogether excessively ugly, were what com- 
posed that race of animals. Some beautiful beetles, common flies, 
and muskitoes were occasionally met with, but not in such numbers 
as to produce inconvenience.” 
This summary, which was probably compiled by Menzies, the 
botanist, who was naturalist to the expedition, mentions all the 
creatures noted in the journal of daily events; except that on one 
occasion they found on the top of a native hut “a fresh skin of a 
fish commonly called leather- jacket.” 
After leaving King George’s Sound, Vancouver followed the 
coast eastward as far as Termination Island, near Esperance, where 
on October 22, they 11 noticed more coast and oceanic birds than they 
had seen on any other part of the shores; as, besides gunxiets, 3 and 
two or three different sorts of tern, albatrosses and petrels, particu- 
larly the black and sooty, were in great abundance.” 
Presumably Menzies took some specimens back with him to 
England, but there seems to be no record of what became of them. 
In August, 1791, the French Government despatched two ships, 
the “Recherche” and the “Esperance,” under the command of d’En- 
trecasteaux, to search for La Perouse. After touching at Teneriffe 
and the Cape of Good Hope, they reached Tasmania in April, 1792, 
then visited New Caledonia and a number of other islands as far as 
1 Upeneichthys porosus, Cuv. and Val. 
3 Za'ophus Iobatus, Gray. 
3 Sula serrator, Gray. 
