grows in Falkland
Isles, described by Bougainville as a kind of _gladiolus_, or rather a
species of _gramen_* and named by Pernety corn-flags.

[See English translation of Bougainville, p.51.]

The animals found on this little spot are sea-lions, sea-bears, a
variety of oceanic, and some land-birds. The sea-lion is pretty well
described by Pernety, though those we saw here have not such fore-feet
or fins as that he has given a plate of, but such fins as that which he
calls the sea-wolf. Nor did we see any of the size he speaks of; the
largest not being more than twelve or fourteen feet in length, and
perhaps eight or ten in circumference. They are not of that kind
described under the same name by Lord Anson; but, for aught I know,
these would more properly deserve that appellation: The long hair, with
which the back of the head, the neck and shoulders, are covered, giving
them greatly the air and appearance of a lion. The other part of the
body is covered with short hair, little longer than that of a cow or a
horse, and the whole is a dark-brown. The female is not half so big as
the male, and is covered with a short hair of an ash or light-dun
colour. They live, as it were, in herds, on the rocks, and near the
sea-shore. As this was the time for engendering as well as bringing
forth their young, we have seen a male with twenty or thirty females
about him, and always very attentive to keep them all to himself, and
beating off every other male who attempted to come into his flock.
Others again had a less number; some no more than one or two; and here
and there we have seen one lying growling in a retired, place, alone,
and suffering neither males nor females to approach him: We judged these
were old and superannuated.

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 an
iron-grey. This is the kind which the French call sea-wolfs, and the
English seals; they are, however, different from the seals we have in
Europe and North America. The lions may, too, without any great
impropriety, be called over-grown seals; for they are all of the same
species. It was not at all dangerous to go among them, for they either
fled or lay still. The only danger was in going between them and the
sea; for if t