premature desertion of the mothers, driven away by unseasonable disturbance of the sealers."
The animals were persistently followed. When retreating to caverns, they were frightened out by explosions of powder, to meet the lance or the club. The adventurers would descend cliffs and caves by ropes to reach their victims. It is no wonder then that they became so soon extinct on the Australian and Tasmanian shores. We cannot say of the Straits, with Sir Walter Scott—
"Rude Heiskar's seals, through surges dark;
Will long pursue the minstrel's bark."
The Mutton-bird, the sorrow of the aboriginal captive slave of the sealer, is so called from its supposed taste. It is the sooty petrel of naturalists. Web-footed, it skims, with its long wings, over the ocean for its food, the floating spawn, or a green slimy substance. This gelatinous material it gathers from the waves to feed its young. Captain Flinders was so struck with one vast cloud of these birds, that he entered upon a calculation of their numbers, and estimated them approximately at one hundred millions!! I Smaller than a duck, but somewhat larger than a pigeon, it accumulates fat to an enormous extent, and furnishes by pressure alone a considerable amount of oil.
The time of incubation is toward the end of the year. The female comes to land, burrows in the sand of the shore, or the decomposed granite of the islands, often to the depth of four feet, and deposits its eggs. These were diligently procured by the black women, and carried by the sealers to Launceston and other markets. The egg is nearly the size of that laid by a goose, with the taste of a raw onion about it. The male bird would sit in the hole by day and the female by night. When the young appeared, the gins permitted them to get in good condition, and then captured them. This was done by stopping up the entrance, and then digging down to the birds with a stick. Thrusting the arm in the hole was not always safe, as snakes often took shelter there. The capture made, the burrow was left in order, that the next season might bring an occupant.
King Walter gave me an account of their Straits' hunting for these birds. He said they ate well if kept for a day in brine, or if broiled after smoking them. They were, after preparation, put into casks containing each some three or four hundred birds.
