SEAL-FISHERIES. 
28 
afford a good quantity of oil, the trade, in a 
prosperous season, is a lucrative one. There are 
also several establishments for the seal-fishery on 
the coast of New Zealand, or on the small islands 
in the vicinity of the coast. A number of sailors 
are landed, and left to kill and skin the seals, 
many thousands of which are destroyed in the 
course of a few months. The isolated situation of 
the sealers must .render their employment ex- 
ceedingly unpleasant ; with merely a rush-hut to 
screen them from the inclemency of the weather ; 
frequently many hours of each day in mud and 
water ; dependent upon very precarious supplies 
of provision ; without medicine, and without as- 
sistance in case of sickness ; exposed to the caprice 
and cruelty of the natives living on the little 
islands ; and having scarcely any intercourse with 
Europeans ; — these, with many other privations, 
must make their residence a perfect banishment 
for the time. 
On the western or windward coast there are 
no safe harbours for shipping : such as exist, are 
mostly unapproachable, from bars of sand, lying 
across the mouth, rendering it impossible, or 
highly dangerous, to enter. This remark holds 
good with respect to Hokianga ; at which place 
more vessels have been wrecked than at all the 
other entrances to harbours, either on the wind- 
ward or the leeward shores. When a vessel has 
safely entered the heads of Hokianga, a fine river 
immediately presents itself, and affords most 
