272 KEPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS, 



Penalty; IV. The master, owner, and crew of any steamer, which shall go on 



a second or subsequent trip contrary to the tliird section of this Act, 

 shall be liable to forfeit double the value of their respective interests 

 in the seals which shall be brought in on such second or subsecjuent 

 trips, to be recovered and paid to any informer who shall sue for the 

 Proviso. same, in a summary way, before a Stipendiary Magistrate: Provided 



that, in case the owner or purchaser of such seals, having had notice 

 that such seals were killed on such second or subsequent trip, shall 

 be liable and responsible i'or the payment of such penalty, to the 

 extent of the interest of the owner, master, and crew of such steamer : 

 Provided that, in cases in which a larger sum than 100 dollars 

 .198 shall be adjudged, against any defendant, he may appeal to the 

 Supreine Court, upon (if required) giving good and sufiBcient 

 security within ten days after conviction, to prosecute the appeal and 

 abide final Judgments. 

 Masters' pen- V. Sealing-masters violating the third section of this Act shall be 

 ^■Ity. incompetent, for two years after conviction for any offence thereunder, 



to be employed to command vessels of the seal fishery, or to be cleared 

 at the custom-house, as masters of such vessels. 

 Term "second VI. For the purposes of this Act, vessels shall be deemed to be on 

 *"?•" a second or subsequent trip if they shall engage in killing seals on 



the coast of this island and its dependencies, after clearing and sail- 

 ing for Davis Straits or Greenland fishery, and the master and owners 

 shall be liable to the same penalties as ])rovided in fourth and fifth 

 sections of this Act. Any complaints, on information under this sec- 

 tion, may be made within three months next after the return of the 

 said vessel to a port of this island. 

 Complaints VII. Any complaint or information, under the foregoing provisions 

 wUhin thi^oe"^ *'"^ Act, must be made within three months of the time of the 

 niouilis. alleged breach thereof. 



Anno Quinquagesimo Secundo Victoki^ Rkgin^. 



Cap. I. — An Act to amend the Law relating to the taking of Seals and Right of 

 Property therein. 



[Passed March 7, 1889.] 



Enacting Be it enacted by the Governor, Legislative Council, and Assembly, 

 clause. in Legislative Session convened as follows: 



Repealing I. The first section of the Act passed in the fiftieth year of the 

 clause. reign of Her present Majesty, cap. 23, entitled "An Act to regulate 



the taking and right of property in Seals," is hereby repealed. 



Memorandum respecting the Seal Fishery of the Greenland Sea, prepared at the Board of 

 Trade at the request of the Behrimfa Sea Commissioners. 



Roughly speaking, this so-called fishery used to be carried on l)etween Spitzbergen 

 and Iceland, its chief centre being the neighbourhood of the Island of Jan Mayen. 



As early as the month of February 1873 the late Mr. Frank Buckland, by a letter 

 to the "Times," entitled "A Plea for the Seals," and otherwise, called public atten- 

 tion to the abuses connected with the pursuit of this fishery. The circumstances 

 would appear to have been as follows : 



About the time of the Spring Equinox, the seals congregate in immense numbers, 

 and the females give birth to their young upon the ice. The young at birth are 

 very helpless, and weigh about 4 lbs., but they grow with astonishing rapidity, and 

 it is said that in about a fortnight the weight of each young seal is some 70 lbs. 



Owing to competition in the fishery, it had become the practice to take (i. e.^'^kill) 

 seals immediately upon the birth of the young. In this way the mothers were slain 

 or often scared away from the young before the latter were of age to take care of 

 themselves. The young were of small value for commercial purposes at this stage 

 of their existence, and though some of them were killed and shipped, enormous 

 numbers were left to die of starvation. 



Conducted in this manner the fishery was a scene of revolting cruelty, the cries of 

 the thousands of young dying seals being said to resemble the cries of hundreds of 

 thousands of human infants, and the destruction of the fishery by the scattering or 

 extermination of the seals seemed not far distant. The seals in question are not 



