at one, which was sitting on the top of a rock with his nose extended up towards the sun, and struck him with three musket balls.  He rolled over, and plunged into the water; but in less than half an hour had taken his former station and attitude.  On firing again, a stream of blood spouted forth from his breast to some yards distance, and he fell back, senseless.  On examination, the six balls were found lodged in his breast; and one, which occasioned his death, had pierced the heart:  his weight was equal to that of a common ox.

The 4th station was on Sloping Point, where an aculeated ant-eater was caught, and some quartz crystals were picked up from the shore. 5th, At the east side of Kent’s Bay, under the peak of Cape Barren.  This peak I wished to ascend, in order to obtain a view of the surrounding lands, particularly of an extensive piece to the southward, which, from the smokes continually seen there, was supposed to be a part of Van Diemen’s Land; but the almost impenetrable brush wood, with which the sides of the peak and surrounding hills were covered, defeated my purpose.

The 6th station was at Passage Point.  The 7th, on Cone Point, where the number of seals exceeded every thing we had, any of us, before witnessed; and they were smaller, and of a different species from those which frequented Armstrong’s Channel.  Instead of the bull-dog nose, and thinly-set, sandy hair, these had sharp-pointed noses, and the general colour of the hair approached to a black; but the tips were of a silver grey, and underneath was a fine, whitish, thick fur.  The commotion excited by our presence, in this assemblage of several thousand timid animals, was very interesting to me, who knew little of their manners.  The young cubs huddled together in the holes of the rocks, and moaned piteously; those more advanced scampered and rolled down to the water, with their mothers; whilst some of the old males stood up in defence of their families, until the terror of the sailors bludgeons became too strong to be resisted.  Those who have seen a farm yard, well stocked with pigs, calves, sheep, oxen, and with two or three litters of puppies, with their mothers, in it, and have heard them all in tumult together, may form a good idea of the confused noise of the seals at Cone Point.  The sailors killed as many of these harmless, and not unamiable creatures, as they were able to skin during the time necessary for me to take the requisite angles; and we then left the poor affrighted multitude to recover from the effect of our inauspicious visit.

My 8th station was taken, in returning to the schooner, upon the south end of the eastern Passage Isle; 9th, the south-west end of the western Passage Isle; and 10th, the south-east point of Clarke’s Island.  The 11th and last station was at Look-out Head, the bearings from which included some parts of the southern land, between the extremes of S. 20 deg. 20’ E. and S. 59 deg. 35’ W. At these different stations, the needle of the theodolite was sometimes found to vary one or two degrees from itself, as it had done at Preservation Island; an effect which I attribute to the attraction of the rocks, having since experienced the same, and even greater, differences in most places where the rocks, as here, are granitic.