HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF. 



127 



and polar bear patiently await their visits and fre- 

 quently effect their capture. 



Although not found in sufficient numbers round 

 our own coast to be of any commercial value, in the 

 Northern Seas, where they congregate in vast 

 numbers at the breeding season, the seal-fishery is of 

 great importance as a branch of industry, and finds 

 employment for a large number of vessels and men, 

 both from this country and from the ports of 

 Northern Europe. In the Greenland sea-fishery the 

 Norwegian whalers had in 1874 sixteen steamers and 

 nineteen sailing-ships, with an aggregate tonnage of 

 9,000 tons, manned by 1,600 sailors, and in the three 

 years ending 1874 they killed 142,500 young seals 

 and 128,000 old ones, notwithstanding which the 

 balance-sheet of the three years showed only a small 

 profit on the steamers and a large loss on the sailing- 

 vessels. (Land and Water, K\\g\x?,i26i\i, i^T$.) In 

 a newspaper report [Daily Mews, April 15th, 1874) 

 eleven British ships, there named, are said to have 

 returned in 1874 with cargoes varying from 9 to 

 95 tons of oil, amounting in all to 528 tons, which, 

 at the estimate of 100 seals to the ton of oil, would 

 show the vast number of 52,800 seals to have fallen 

 to the British ships alone in that season, exclusive 

 of those wounded and lost, or otherwise destroyed. 

 Dr. Wallace * estimates the annual produce of the 

 Greenland seal-fishery alone at the sum of ^^i 16,000 ; 

 the bulk of the seals taken are the Harp-seal 

 {P/ioca grcenlandica). To show the wasteful manner 

 in which this trade is at present prosecuted, I will 

 quote from a letter written by an old and experienced 

 sealer, Captain David Gray, of the steamship Eclipse. 

 He says that five ships in 1873 shot among the old 

 seals for four days until the pack was utterly ruined. 

 "I suppose," he continues, "about 10,000 old seals 

 had been taken. Add 20 per cent, for seals mortally 

 wounded and lost, gives an aggregate of 12,000 old 

 ones ; add 12,000 young ones which died of starva- 

 tion [their parents being killed before the young ones 

 wei'e of any value or able to shift for themselves], 

 gives 24,000 . . . The whole of the young brood 

 was desti-oyed, and had these seals been left alone for 

 eight or ten days, I am quite within the mark when 

 I say that, instead of only taking 300 tons of oil out 

 of them, 1,500 could as easily have been got, and 

 that without touching an old one."f So great are 

 the cruelties perpetrated by the crews of the sealers, 

 that even the men themselves, hardened as they are, 

 sicken at the work, and cry shame that the law does 

 not put a stop to them. Let anybody who cares to 

 know what fearful cruelties man is capable of per- 

 petrating for gain, read Captain Gray's letter. The 

 remedy for this waste of life (of course its cruelties 

 can only be modified) is perfectly simple. Let the 

 ships, says Captain Gray, be kept from sailing before 



* Dr. Brown's "Seals of Greenland," "Arctic Manual,' 

 p. 67. 

 t Land and Water, Mav 9th, 1874. 



the 25th March, about a month later than they now 

 start, and by the time they reach the fishery and find 

 the seals the young ones will be sufficiently grown to 

 be worth killing, and the frightful waste of life which 

 now occurs from the destruction of the old seals 

 before their young are able to shift for themselves, 

 resulting in the death from starvation of the whole 

 brood, will be put a stop to. An attempt was made 

 last season by the countries interested in the seal 

 fishery to regulate the departure of the vessels ; but 

 for some reason the necessary treaties were not com- 

 pleted.* It is to be hoped that legislation on the 

 subject will be delayed no longer, or the time will 

 have passed for restrictions to be of benefit. "Sup- 

 posing the sealing prosecuted with the same vigour 

 as at present," says Dr. Brown, " I have little hesi- 

 tation in stating that before thirty years shall have 

 passed away, the seal-fishery, as a source of com- 

 mercial revenue, will have come to a close, and the 

 progeny of the immense number of seals now swim- 

 ming about in Greenland waters will number but 

 comparatively few."+ 



The Walrus is rapidly and even more surely 

 becoming exterminated than the seal ; it has become 

 extinct from station after station, and but for its ice- 

 loving habits, which render its present strongholds 

 always difficult and sometimes impossible of access, 

 it would now probably, like Steller's Rhytina, have 

 to be spoken of in the past tense. 



The Common Seal, par excellence, of the British 

 waters is Phoca vitidina, Linn. (fig. 107). It is found 

 in more or less abundance on unfrequented shores and 

 sands from the Orkney and Shetland Islands, where it 

 most abounds, to Cornwall, often ascending estuaries 

 and rivers for a considerable distance, but never 

 quitting the immediate vicinity of the water. It is 

 found, according to Bell, on both sides the North 

 Atlantic, and is common in Spitzbergen, Greenland, 

 and Davis Straits ; also Northern Russia, Scandi- 

 navia, Holland, and France, and is said to occur 

 occasionally in the Mediterranean. It figures largely 

 in the returns of the Danish and Greenland fishery. 

 The number killed annually of this species and P. 

 hispida is estimated by Dr. Brown at about 70,000. 

 On our own shores it is not so frequent as formerly ; 

 but still, in suitable situations, is by no means rare. 



* Since the above was written another season has been 

 allowed to pass, and no steps have been taken to regulate this 

 cruel and wasteful trade ; the sealing crews are probably at this 

 moment engaged in their bloody work of extermination. Would 

 that some of the well-meant but misdirected energy which has 

 been brought to bear against so-called vivisection could be 

 employed to urge upon all the powers interested a speedy and 

 thorough reform in a trade which, conducted as at present, is a 

 disgrace to all nations and people concerned in it. 



t Brown, " Seals of Greenland." Dr. Brown's prediction is 

 already virtually fulfilled, for, as this paper is passing through 

 the press, I read in the Daily News of April loth an account of 

 the success of Dundee vessels engaged in the Newfoundland 

 seal-fishery. 39,000 seals are said to have been captured by 

 two vessels. The paragraph ends thus : " Previously all 

 Dundee vessels were employed at the Greenland seal-fishing, 

 but Captain Adams has lor some years been of opinion that 

 I that groundis practically usedup, and hence his visit to New- 

 ' foundland." The italics are not in the original. 



