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Show 758 MR. J. W. CLARK ON THE EARF.D [Nov. 18, [tarty of men, some to kill Seals, others to catch or kill birds, fish, or what came in our way. To find the former it mattered not where we landed; for the whole shore was covered with them; and by the noise they made, one would have thought the island was stocked with cows and calves. On landing we found they were a different animal from Seals, but in shape and motion exactly resembling them. W e called them Lions on account of the great resemblance the male has to that beast. Here were also the same kind of Seals which we found in N e w Zealand, generally known by the name of Sea-bears; at least we gave them that name. They were in general so tame, or rather stupid, as to suffer us to come near enough to knock them down with sticks ; but the large ones we shot, not thinking it safe to approach them " On the following day he continues his account: - "The old Lions and Bears were killed chiefly for the sake of their blubber or fat to make oil of; for, except their haslets, which were tolerable, the flesh was too rank to be eaten with any degree of relish ; but the young cubs were very palatable, and even the flesh of some of the old lionesses was not much amiss ; but that of the old males was abominable." Again, after describing the Sea-lion more in detail (p. 203), he proceeds : - " The Sea-bears are not so large, by far, as the Lions, but rather larger than a common Seal. They have none of that long hair which distinguishes the Lion. Theirs is all of an equal length, and finer than that of the Lion, something like an Otter's, and the general colour is that of iron-grey. This is the kind which the French call Sea-wolves, and the English Seals; they are, however, different from the Seals we have in Europe and North- America." The existence of two Eared Seals at Cape Horn is evident from these descriptions, of which the Sea-lion is Otaria jubata, and the other (a small grey Seal, apparently a Fur-Seal, from the comparison of its hair to that of an Otter) is, I think, in all probability the Fur-Seal of the Falklands (Otaria falklandica=-Euotaria nigrescens, Gray); and Dr. Gray has identified skulls from Desolation Island, which was one of the principal stations of the sealers in former days *, on the S.W. coast of Patagonia, with this species f. No succeeding voyager has, so far as I have been able to discover, mentioned the existence of a third Seal at Cape Horn. It will be most interesting to discover whether Otaria hookeri is restricted to the Auck-lands, or whether it extends to any part of New Zealand or Australia. If I am right in m y opinion that Otaria hookeri is not found at Cape Horn, the identification of it with the Eared Seal of Pennant J, the Phoca flavescens of Shaw, and the Otaria flavescens of Desmarest, falls to the ground. Pennant's specimen came from the Straits of Magellan ; it formed part of Sir Ashton Lever's * Hamilton, Ann. & Mag. of Nat. Hist, vol. ii. p. 82. + Supplement to Cat. of Seals and Whales, p. 21. \ Natural History of Quadrupeds*, 3rd ed. 1793, vol. ii. p. 278. |