SEAL-HUNTING AT NOVA ZEMBLA, ETC. 511 



I have been unable to determine whether similar legislative 

 action has been taken by Germany, but in all probability such 

 is the case, rendering the protective act a thoroughly interna- 

 tional one so far as the three governments chiefly interested 

 are concerned. 



4. Nova Zembla and the Kara Sea. Captain Melsoin, as above 

 indicated (antea, p. 506) believed, in 1871, that the Kara Sea and 

 the shores of Nova Zembla offered new and profitable hunting- 

 grounds for the Norwegian sealing-fleet, and relates that already 

 several successful voyages had been made to Nova Zembla from 

 Tromso and Hammerfest. According to Schultz, the Eussians, 

 between the years 1830 and 1840, brought "rich cargoes of sal- 

 mon or trout, of seals and walruses "from Nova Zembla, but he 

 states that later "the product of the fisheries and of the chase 

 diminished ; the animals left their usual places of abode and re- 

 moved to others less accessible. The fishermen consequently 

 ceased going to Novaya-Zemlya, so that in 1850 and 1860 only five 

 vessels sailed for that group of islands. 



" The northern island of Novaya-Zemlya is most frequented by 

 fishermen, while those who have strong and well-equipped ves- 

 sels venture as far north as Matoschkine. The arrangements 

 are made so as to arrive toward the end of June at Novaya- 

 Zemlya, where the fishermen commence their work by hunting 

 the seals and the walrus, and afterward devote themselves to 

 fishing for the common trout, the variety called Salmo alpinus, 

 which the Eussians call ' golets.' "* 



5. White Sea. Many Seals are taken in the White Sea, where 

 they have been hunted by the inhabitants of the neighboring 

 coasts since many hundred years. Now, as formerly, seal-hunt- 

 ing is here mainly prosecuted by the Eussians. According to 

 Schultz, the species chiefly hunted is the Phoca grcenlandiea, 

 which is killed on the ice. The hunt is carried on principally along 

 the eastern shore (which is called the " Winter Coast "), and " in 

 the bays of the Dwina and Mezene, and on the coast of Kanine." 

 During summer, or from May till September, these animals re- 

 pair to the more remote Arctic Seas, but later make their appear- 

 ance in the gulfs and bays of the Arctic Coast. They pair on 

 the ice in the White Sea about the beginning of February, espe- 

 cially in the Gulf of the Dwina, at which time the females give 



* Account of the Fisheries and Seal-hunting in the White Sea, the Arctic 

 Ocean, and the Caspian Sea. Rep. U. S. Com. of Fish and Fisheries, pt. iii, for 

 1873-74 and 1874-75, originally published (in French) at St. Petersburg in 

 1873. 



