, the
hair seals, which are not of much value except for their oil; the
grey seals, whose skins are valuable; and the black seals, whose furs
always command the highest price. When these animals have not been
disturbed in their resorts for some years they are comparatively
tame, and it is not difficult to approach them. Great numbers of the
young ones are sometimes found on the rocks, and if pushed into the
water they will presently come out again, scramble back on to the
rocks, and begin crying for their dams. But the old seals, when
frequently disturbed, become shy, and, on the first alarm, take to
the water. The flesh of the young seals is good to eat, and seamen
who have been cast away on the islands have been sometimes saved from
starvation by eating it.
I once made the acquaintance of an old sealer. He had formerly been
very sensitive on the point of honour; would resent an insult as
promptly as any knight-errant; but by making an idol of his honour
his life had been a grievous burden to him. And he was not even a
gentleman, and never had been one. He was known only as "Jack."
It was in the year 1854, when I had been cast ashore in Corio Bay by
a gale of hostile fortune, and had taken refuge for a while at the
Buck's Head Hotel, then kept by a man named McKenzie. One evening
after tea I was talking to a carpenter at the back door, who was
lamenting his want of timber.
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