292 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



well known in the West Indies. According to Dr. Coues it is 

 seldom seen in flocks, but scattered singly or in pairs. In some 

 parts of America it receives the name of "meadow-snipe," "short 

 neck," and "fat bird." In other districts it is also called "jack- 

 snipe." 



I.— The Seal and Whale Fishery of 1882. By Mr. Thomas 

 Southwell, F.Z.S. 



In this paper it was stated that the Newfoundland sealing in the 

 season of 1882 opened under the most unfavourable circumstances, 

 owing to the vast accumulation of ice in the Atlantic. All through 

 the spring, and quite into the month of June, reports represented 

 the Newfoundland seas as bristling with huge icebergs, whilst from 

 Cape Breton to 200 miles S.E. of Cape Race stretched a tremendous 

 pack of heavy ice, which the sealers on their arrival in vain tried 

 to penetrate, effectually closing the port of St. John's. On the 2nd 

 March five of the Dundee vessels were reported still fast in the ice, 

 and they only reached St. John's on the 9th March, barely in time 

 to make their arrangements for sailing on the 10th, the day fixed 

 by law for their departure. 



On the 21st May H.M.S. "Teredos" reported the ice to be nearly 

 solid from Cape Breton to Newfoundland ; twenty-one ships were 

 locked in the ice N.W. of Cape Race, one large ship of 1000 tons 

 resting forty feet above the water ; and at the end of the month 

 there were still many ships imprisoned in the vast ice-field off Cape 

 Breton. It was not surprising, therefore, that the Dundee vessels 

 should have been much less successful than in the season of 1881, 

 the take of Seals having been only 63,204, against 139,985 in the 

 previous year. The "Arctic" and the "Thetis" were the most 

 successful, the former taking 24,663 and the latter 10,598 Seals, 

 the remaining four vessels securing 27,943 Seals between them. The 

 "Wolf" was also reported "full," and 'the "Proteus" and "Walrus" 

 (all three belonging to British owners), the former with 8000 and 

 the latter with 7800 Seals. The Newfoundland voyage, notwith- 

 standing the difficulties which the vessels encountered, might, so 

 far as the British vessels were concerned, be said, upon the whole, 

 to have been a successful one, although far short of the exceptional 

 season of 1881. The "Thetis" proceeded from St. John's direct 

 to the Greenland Seal fishery, and succeeded in shooting 3317 old 



