lo SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRITISH SEAS. 



ones were able to shift for themselves, resulting in the death from starva- 

 tion of the whole brood, thus be put a stop to. 



With this object in view, an Act was passed in 1875, in which the Foreign 

 States interested concurred, prohibiting the killing of the Seals before the 3rd 

 of April in each year ; from some misunderstanding this Act was not enforced 

 in the season of i.^76, but in 1877 it was rigidly observed by the ships of all 

 nations engaged in the fishery. The result of the season's fishing was very 

 unsatisfactory, owing to the absence of the large bodies of Seals which formerly 

 were met with. Captain Gray, after three years' experience of the operation of 

 this Act, considers that the fishing still opens too early,* and that an additional 

 three days are necessary to enable the young Seals to arrive at their best, and 

 prevent the useless slaughter of the old ones, which are getting thin from 

 being suckled. He is of opinion that, since the introduction of the close time, 

 the Greenland Seals are not diminishing quite so rapidly as they were, but 

 that the restriction has not been in operation long enough to form a very 

 accurate opinion. 



The Walrus is even more rapidly and 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. 



* Great diversity of opinion, however, exists upon this point, the Dundee sealers considering that 

 the fishery should open a few days earlier, and that a time should be fixed for its closing, in order that 

 too great a number of the old Seals may not be shot. The young Seals grow with great rapidity, and 

 even a few hours make a marked difiierence in their condition ; it seems, therefore, of the greatest 

 importance that a time should be fixed for the opening of the fishery, which will ensure the young animals 

 being in as forward a condition as possible, and that the nursing mother should be spared. It is said, 

 also, that, in consequence of the number of females killed while nursing, the old dog Seals are vastly 

 more numerous than the females, and that positive good is accomplished by some of them being killed 

 off. One opinion, however, seems universal, which is, that not much good has resulted, at present, 

 from the close time. 



