204 HISTOEY AND METHODS OP THE FISHERIES. 



I am uot quite sure, after all that has been said ou this subject, that the whale is getting extinct, 

 and am beginning to entertain convictions that its supposed scarcity in recent times is a great deal 

 owing to its escaping to remote, less known, and less visited localities. It is said to be coming 

 back again to the coast of Greenland, now that the hot pursuit of it has slackened in that portion 

 of Davis Strait. The varying success of the trade is owing not so much to the want of whales as 

 to the ill luck of the vessels in coming across their haunts. Every now and again cargoes equal to 

 anything that was obtained in (he best days of the trade are obtained. Only seven years ago I 

 came home to England ('shipmates,' as the phrase goes), with no less than thirty 'right whales,' in 

 addition to a iniseellaaieous menagerie of Arctic animals, dead and alive, and a motley human crew 

 a company so outre that I question if ever naturalist, or even whaler, sailed with the like before."* 

 In 1877 the Scotch whaling and sealing vessels began the capture of the bottle-nose whale 

 (Hyperoodon roNlrttfus); in 1878 this fleet killed 9; in 1879,8; in 1880,32; in 1881, 111, and in 

 iss;.}, 403. These whales are found in Davis Strait and adjacent waters and eastward of Green- 

 land from Cape Farewell to Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Bear Island, and as far north as seventy- 

 seven degrees north latitude. They are about 30 feet long, and yield an excellent quality of oil.t 



RUSSIA AND RUSSIAN AMERICA. 



In a pamphlet by Dr. Grimm on Enssian fisheries the whale fisheries of that country are 

 thus discussed: "The beluga or white whale (I><'J[i1ihifi])tfriiK I m <:*) is from 14 to 25 feet long. 

 Beluga fishing is carried on in the White Sea, where the beluga lives all the year round ; also 

 in the gulfs of the 1S T . Dvina, Onega, Kondolon and Mezen ; in the Arctic Ocean it is found to the 

 east of the White Sea, near the mouth of the Petchora, along the Tiuian coast, chiefly near the 

 river Piosha ; near Nova Zenibla, at the mouth of the Obi, and farther on. In chasing fish, it goes 

 very high up the rivers, for instance, up the Obi. It is caught in nets, with which it is surrounded, 

 drawn to a shallow place and killed in what is called the dvor, or yard ; from four to six boats 

 take part in the work. The quantity of oil got from the beluga is various. Sometimes a herd of 

 large animals have been killed, each of which yielded about li! poods [432 pounds] of blubber, and 

 nt other times one meets belugas that yield only some 4 to 5 poods [144 to 180 pounds]. The 

 exact number of beluga caught in a year is not known, as in the statistics of the fisheries the 

 beluga is classed with all the walrus, seals, whales, &c. The dolphin (Delphinus delphis and D. 

 l>li<-<cnft) is found in considerable numbers in the Black Sea. From this sea, in chasing fish, it 

 enters the various gulfs and bays and into the Sea of Azof. The Turks come into the Black Sea 

 after the dolphin, chiefly visiting Pischoouda. Our fishermen sometimes catch it, but jrenerally 

 content themselves with a stray dolphin that may get in among the fish. Dilpliuuix pltoccena is 

 sometimes met with in the Bailie, and even has come up as far as Cronstadt, but very rarely. 



" There are four kinds of whales in the Arctic Ocean: Mc/jrijifera IHH>/>X, IlitlirHojitrni Itiliceps, 

 Balcenoptera musculus, andjB. Hihbalilli. The last is the one that whalers chiefly kill, the first three 

 being killed no\\ and then. Notwithstanding the efforts of the Jtussian Government to increase 

 whaling, it is still in a very primitive condition here. The Laps and Pomors, it is true, use whale- 

 blubber, but it is procured from the carcasses of whales that are often driven ashore. They uevei 

 kill whales, owing, perhaps, to the false idea that the whale drives the moyva (Mallotus arcticns) 

 to the shore, and that therefore whales are useful to the, fisheries, and that they ought not to be 



* Notes on the History and Geographical Relations of the Cetaeea frequenting Davis Strait and Baffin's Bay. By 

 Robert Brown, F. R. G. S. Proc. London Zoolog. Soc., 1868. 



tFor a full discussion of this fishery see papers by Mr. Thomas Southwell in London Zoologist, ami iu Transac- 

 tions of Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, vol. iii. Iu 1883 Mr. Southwell reports the Scotch fishery as fallen 

 ofl" in consequence of the number of small Norwegian vessels attracted to this new fishery. 



