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Show 650 MR. J. W. CLARK ON EARED SEALS. [Dec. 7, and with Cone Point: with parts of the Passage Isles, and the south snd of Clarke's Island; and at these places only did I see fur-seals in any number" (p. cxxxiii.). Waterhouse Island (on the north coast of Tasmania, west of Furneaux's Island) " was almost covered with sea-birds and hair-seals " (p. cli). At Three-Hummock Island (at the west extremity of the Strait) Mr. Bass landed. "He had been obliged to fight his way up the cliffs of the island with the seals, and when arrived at the top, to make a road with his clubs among the albatrosses. . . . The seals were of the usual size, and bore a reddish fur, much inferior in quality to that of the seals at Furneaux's Island" (p. clxxii.). In the "Recherche Archipelago" (south-west coast of Australia), says Flinders on his voyage in 1801, "all the islands seem to be more or less frequented by seals; but I think not in numbers sufficient to make a speculation from Europe advisable on their account; certainly not for the China market, the seals being mostly of the hair kind, and the fur of such others as were seen was red and coarse " (i. p. 92). On Investigators Islands " the beaches were frequented by seals of the hair kind. A family of them, consisting of a male, four or five females, and as many cubs, was lying asleep at every two or three hundred yards. Their security was such, that I approached several of these families very closely, and retired without disturbing their domestic tranquillity or being perceived by them " (p. 125). Kangaroo Island abounded with Kangaroos and Seals. " They seemed to dwell amicably together. It not unfrequently happened that the report of a gun fired at a kangaroo near the beach, brought out two or three bellowing seals from under bushes considerably further from the water side. Tbe seal, indeed, seemed to be much the most discerning animal of the two; for its actions bespoke a knowledge of our not being kangaroos, whereas the kangaroo not unfrequently appeared to consider us to be seals" (p. 172). The explorations of Peron, who visited Australia at the same time as Flinders, have left us several valuable notices on the Seals and Otarias observed by him. It is much to be regretted that his memoir of the family never appeared, and that his MSS. have been, so far as I know, lost sight of*. It is beside m y present purpose to do more than refer to his very remarkable account of the Sea-elephants that he found on King Island in Bass's Strait, and nowhere else. Flinders had already remarked an animal there which may, I feel sure, be referred to this speciest. On visiting Kangaroo Island (called by the French Isle Decres) he found "a new species of the genus Otaria (O. cinerea, N.), which attains the length of 9 to 10 feet. The hair of this animal * After establishing the genus Otaria for "les Phocac^s a auricules," he speaks of "un travail tres-etendu que je prepare sur la famille" (' Voyage de D6couvertes aux Terres Australes. . . . pendant les annees 1800-1804,' par P6ron et Freycinet [3 vol. 4to, Paris, 1816], ii. p. 37). t I. c i. p. 200; Peron, I. c. chap, xxiii. |