6 SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRITISH SEAS. 



the Greenland fishery. Mr. David Bruce, of Dundee, to whom I am indebted 

 for the above particulars, informs me that the season of 1880 was a failure 

 in the Newfoundland fishery, and that out of a fleet of twenty-four steamers, 

 not more than six of them would pay their expenses. 



Mr. J. A. Allen* gives an interesting account of the rise and progress of 

 the Newfoundland fishery, which he characterises as " the sealing-ground, 

 par excellence, of the world, twice as many Seals being taken here by the 

 Newfoundland fleet alone as by the combined sealing-flects of Great Britain, 

 Germany, and Norway, in the icy seas about Jan May en, or the so-called 

 'Greenland Sea' of the whalemen and sealers." So early as 1721, 

 thousands of " sea-wolves " were killed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but, 

 according to Mr. Michael Carroll, of Bonavista, Newfoundland, in his account 

 of the 'Seal and Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland,' published in 1873, as 

 quoted by Mr. Allen, it was not till the year 1763 that the seal-fishery was 

 regularly prosecuted there by vessels specially equipped for the purpose. 

 The trade, however, rapidly assumed importance, and in 1807 thirty vessels 

 from Newfoundland alone were engaged in it. In 1834 the Newfoundland 

 fleet had increased to three hundred and seventy-five, besides a considerable 

 number of vessels from Nova Scotia and the Magdalen Islands; in 1857 the 

 number of vessels employed appears to have reached its maximum, exceeding 

 three hundred and seventy, whilst the catch of Seals was estimated at 500,000. 

 About the year 1866, steamships were first introduced, and have ever since 

 been increasingly employed ; the result has been a steady decrease in the 

 number of vessels, which, in 1871, were reduced to one hundred and forty-six 

 sailing vessels and fifteen steamers, or less than one-half, but the number of 

 Seals taken annually, up to 1873, appears to have remained about the same, 



* 'History of North American Pinnipeds,' by Joel Asaph Allen. U.S. Geological and 

 Geographical Survey of the Territories, Miscellaneous Publications, No. 12, Washington Government 

 Printing Office, 1880. 



