430 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



the collections made during the German deep-sea explorations, 

 as also a complete collection of the implements employed by 

 the German fishermen, illustrations of the different kinds of 

 products prepared from fish, and models of boats, traps, hatch- 

 ing-houses, etc. Applications for space in the exposition were 

 made to the Bureau of the Verein prior to the 1st of Feb- 

 ruary, and the collections themselves brought together in 

 the course of the month of March, and then transmitted, 

 under suitable superintendence, to Vienna. Circular of 

 Fischer e i - Verein . 



CLOSE TIME FOK SEALS IN THE NOETHEEN SEAS. 



The ra^iid diminution of seals in the North Atlantic, and 

 the impending danger of the failure of a very important 

 branch of the fisheries, have attracted the attention of parties 

 interested in the subject; and on the 24th of January, at Pe- 

 terhead, in England, a meeting was held of the managing 

 owners of the seal and whale fishing -vessels belonging to 

 that port for the purpose of determining the best method 

 of arresting the threatened evil. 



Mr. David Gray, a well-known captain in this trade, and 

 one to whom science is indebted for many important obser- 

 vations on the habits and natural history of the narwhal and 

 other northern species, stated that in consequence of the pres- 

 ent mode of conducting the fishing in the Greenland seas, 

 between Spitzbergen and Iceland, and the indiscriminate de- 

 struction of the cub seals and mothers which annually takes 

 place during the early part of the season, these animals are 

 likely to be nearly or quite exterminated before long. It was 

 thereupon determined that the seals ought to be protected 

 by a close time, and that an international agreement should 

 be secured for prohibiting the prosecution of the business ear- 

 lier than April 6. 2 A, February 1, 1873, 95. 



IS SEAL OIL FISH OIL? 



The much-vexed question as to whether seals are fish or 

 not, as regards the oil to be obtained from them, has recently 

 come up in a joractical shape between the governments of the 

 United States and Newfoundland. The fishery treaty lately 

 entered into btstween the United States and Great Britain, and 

 about to go into actual operation in the course of the present 



