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Show 1873.] SEALS OF THE AUCKLAND ISLANDS. 751 little attention to the Mammalia*. The French naturalists, who spent ten days there, give a graphic description of their visit to one of the bays frequented by the sealers. They say:-" C'est la que les baleiniers leur font la chasse pour recueillir leur peau, qui a une valeur assez elevee (20 fr. environ chaque), quoiq'ils ne soient pas de l'espece appelee phoques a, fourrure. O n rencontre a chaque pas des cadavres de ces animaux a, moitie decomposes, et dont les cranes sont en general brises; nous en trouvames un, entre autres, d'une taille gigan-tique : il avait ete tue quelques jours auparavant a coups de lance, et sa tete etait intacte. Le Capitaine Robinson la fit couper afin d'en faire present a, M . Dumoutier qui la lui avait demandee"f. Shortly afterwards they caught another, taking pains to seize him by a lasso, so as not to damage him, and carried him on board ship. Nevertheless no mention of these animals occurs in the zoology of the expedition, where Stenorhynchus leptonyx and Lobodon carcino-phaga are the only Seals described. During the three weeks that Sir J. C. Ross's Expedition staid at the Islands the botany was carefully studied by Dr. Hooker, and some notes on the zoology are recorded by Mr. MeCormick J ; but the latter gives not the slightest hint of the existence of Seals or Eared Seals ; and, in the zoology of the voyage, the Auckland Islands are never set down as a locality for any of the Seals described. Between 1850 and 1852 the islands were occupied as a whaling-station by the Messrs. Enderby, to w h o m they had been assigned by the English Government; but their business was rather to make money by whaling than to record the existence of any other marine mammal. Lastly, on Dec. 30, 1863, the schooner ' Grafton,' of Sydney, was wrecked upon the islands, where the captain and crew were condemned to reside for twenty months. In Captain Musgrave's very interesting journal § will be found by far the most detailed account in existence of the habits of any species of Seal. I have done m y best to combine all the notices of importance that are scattered through the pages of his narrative. H e found that the rocky coast of the Aucklands abounded with Seals; in a narrow channel that ran from one of the harbours to the sea, " we saw hundreds of Seals : both the shores and the water were literally swarming with them, both the Tiger and the Black Seal; but in general the Tiger Seals keep one side of the harbour, and the Black Seals, which are much the largest, the other side We also saw a Sea-lion" (p. 7). A "Black Seal" is mentioned, one of whose canine teeth was 3§ inches long, lg inch in circumference at the gum, and 5f inches at the base (p. 66). One would expect to find on first reading this passage that the "Tiger Seals" were the Stenorhynchus leptonyx, a true Seal; but * Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, by Charles Wilkes, during the years 1838-1842, vol. ii. p. 353. t ' Voyage au Pole Sud et dans l'Oceanie sur les corvettes l'Astrolabe et la d1Z8ue6rX§l6i e.nV VCgoa Hsytitahs-egta eyow eiaoaryfre s oDd ni1us 8t cV3hooe9vy -Aea4rug3yce, k,a lb niaxydn. dCRp a.eIp ss1tle1.ea0s rS..ci rhB Jiy.n C ta.hp eRt oaSsiosnu, tT vhhoelor.mn ia .as pn pMd.u As1ngt2ra9ar-vc1et5.i4 c. LR oengdions, |