i ;o
a S k nature, and attempted to converfe with them by figns, which
were for the moil part unintelligible, or mifunderftood.
However, the young woman (hewed a great partiality to a
young feaman, and from her geftures it was fuppofed (he
took him for one of her own fex; but whether he had
taken fome improper liberties, or whether (he had any other
reafon to be difgufted, (he would never fuffer him to come
near her afterwards. We likewife went on fhore to them,
after returning from our excurfion, and the man defiring
us to fit down by him, frequently pointed at our boats that
plyed between the (hip and the (hore, and it appeared that
he was defirous of poffelling one of them. They (laid all
night about a hundred yards from our watering place,
lighted a fire,and drefTed fome fi(h there, thus evidently placing
great confidence in us. In the evening a party of officers
1 let out in a final! boat, to the north fide of the bay, where
they intended to pafs the night, and continue (hooting all
the next day.
Captain Cook, accompanied by my father, went in his
Monday n. boat the next morning, to furvey the rocks and ides in the
mouth of the bay. They entered a fine fnug cove, on the
S, E. fide of the ifland, under which we had found our firflt
anchorage, and which was therefore named Anchor Ifland.
Here they fat down by the fide of a pleafant brook, and
made a flight repaft on fome boiled craw-fifli, which they
had brought with them. From thence they proceeded to
the
A VOY AGE ROUND THE WORLD. i Si
the outermoft iflands, where they difcovered a number of ,’773-
feals on the rocks, (hot fourteen of them with ball, which
they carried away with them, and might have killed many
more, had the furf permitted them to land upon all the
rocks in fafety- The feals in Dulky Bay are all of the fpe-
eies called fea-bears *, which profeflor Steller firft defcribed
on Bering’s Ifland, near Kamtchatka, and which are confe-
quently common to both hemifpheres. They are very
numerous on the fouthern extremities of the continents of
America and Africa, likewife at New Zeeland, and on
Diemen’s Land, The only difference we could perceive between
thefe at Duflcy Bay, and thofe defcribed at Kamtchatka,
confided in the fize, in refpedt of which ours were inferior.
They found it difficult to kill them, and many,,
though grievoufly wounded, efcaped into the fea, and tinged
the rocks and the water with their blood. Their meat,,
which is almoft black, and their heart and liver were eatable,
the former, by the help of a good appetite, and a.
little imagination, might be eaten for beef, and the lad
were perfectly fimilar to a calf’s pluck. We were, however,
obliged to cut away every bit of fat, before we dreded:
the meat, which otherwife had an infupportable tafle of.
train-oil. Captain Cook availed himfelf of this opportunity
of laying in a provifion of lamp-oil; which was boiled;
* Ehoca urfina L in n . Urfine Seal, Pennant. Syn. $>uad. 271.
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