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Show 1875.] MR. J. W. CLARK ON EARED SEALS. 653 It was found to be inhabited by three French Malay fishermen, whose employers resided at Bourbon. They were visited every three or four months, and the fish they had caught and salted taken away. A view of the island will be found in the ' Illustrated London News' for August 19, 1871 ; but I cannot learn that any notes were taken of the zoology. St. Paul's was selected by the French Government as a station for observation of the transit of Venus on Dec. 9, 1874. A good geologist, M . Charles Velain, Attache a. la Faculte des Sciences, Paris, was sent out with the expedition. He has given a most interesting description of the geological conformation of both the islands. St. Paul's is a vast crater, like that of Mauna-Loa in Hawaii, one side of which has been broken down ; and the sea rushing in, has formed a splendid natural harbour, with, however, rather a dangerous bar across the mouth. It is interesting to note that at the date of Lord Macartney's visit this bar stretched across the harbour so much above high-water mark as to be termed a " causeway," and the volcanic forces were evidently much more active than they are at present: smoke was seen to issue from many parts of the island. Amsterdam Island, which M . Velain believes to have been almost entirely unexplored up to the present time, on account of the dense vegetation with which it is covered, is volcanic, like St. Paul's, but of a totally different shape, being a square mountain mass with precipitous sides, from 1500 to 1800 feet high. " Otarias (Otaria delalandei)," he says, " live at St. Paul's Island and, above all, at Amsterdam Island in considerable herds"*. II. New Zealand, Australia, and the adjacent Islands. Captain Cook, in his first voyage, off Cape Egmont, on the east coast of the North Island of N e w Zealand (Jan. 15, 1770), "saw a Sea-lion rise twice near the shore, the head of which exactly resembled that of the male which has been described in the account of Lord Anson's voyage " f. This may be supplemented by his account of what he saw at the same place on his second visit, June 1773:- " In our excursion to the East, we met with the largest Seal I had ever seen. It was swimming on the surface of the water, and suffered us to come near enough to fire at it; but without effect; for, after a chase of near an hour, we were obliged to leave it. By the' size of this animal it probably was a Sea-lioness. It certainly bore much resemblance to the drawing in Lord Anson's Voyage; our seein°- a Sea-lion when we entered this Sound in my former voyage increaseth the probability; and I am of opinion, they have their abode on some of the rocks, which lie in the Strait, or off Admiralty Bay "J. * "Les Otaries (Otaria delalandei) vivent a, Saint-Paul, et surtout a Amsterdam en troupeaux nombreux" (Comptes Eendus de lAcademie, 1875, p. 998). t Hawkesworth, 'An Account of the Voyages &c.,' vol IL p. 385. \ Voyage towards the South Pole and round the world, Fourth Edition, vol. i. p. 124. |