498 FAMILY PHOCIIXS:. 



thirty vessels from Newfoundland alone were engaged in the 

 prosecution of sealing voyages, and subsequently the number 

 became greatly increased. In the year 1834 one hundred and 

 twenty-five vessels, manned by three thousand men, sailed 

 from the single port of St. John's $ two hundred and eighteen 

 vessels, with nearly five thousand men, from Conception Bay, 

 and nineteen from Trinity Bay, besides many others from other 

 ports, making in all not less than three hundred and seventy- 

 five, with crews numbering in the aggregate about nine thou- 

 sand men.* To these are to be added a considerable number 

 from Nova Scotia (chiefly from Halifax), and the Magdalen 

 Islands. In 1857 the Newfoundland sealing-fleet exceeded 

 three hundred and seventy vessels, their "united crews num- 

 bering 13,000 men." The total catch of Seals for that year was 

 five hundred thousand, valued at 425,000, provincial currency. t 

 The business at this date seems to have attained its maximum 

 so far as the number of men and vessels are concerned, the 

 number of vessels subsequently employed falling to below two 

 hundred, which has since still further decreased. Yet the num- 

 ber of Seals annually captured has not apparently diminished, 

 the business being prosecuted in larger vessels, which secure 

 larger catches. According to statistics furnished by Governor 

 Hill, C. B., of Newfoundland, to the home government, J it ap- 

 pears that in 1871 the whole number of vessels employed in 

 sealing was one hundred and forty-six sailing-vessels and fifteen 

 steamers, manned by 8,850 men. The exports of Seal products 

 for that year from Newfoundland were 6,943 tuns of oil, valued 

 at $972,020, and 486,262 skins, valued at $486,262, the catch 

 for the year being about 500,000 Seals, which were sold for the 

 aggregate sum of $1,458,282. The single steamship " Commo- 

 dore," of Harbour Grace, brought in 32,000 Seals, valued at 

 24,000 sterling. While the number of vessels employed in the 

 Newfoundland Seal slaughter had at this time declined more 

 than one-half, and the number of men engaged was one-third 

 less, it appears that the annual catch was equal to that of aver- 

 age seasons twenty years earlier. 



Prior to about 1866 the sealing-fleet consisted wholly of sail- 

 ing-vessels, but since that date a small but steadily increasing 



* Bonnycastle, Newfoundland in 1842, vol. i, p. 159. 

 t Carroll, Seal and Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland, p. 7. 

 t Papers relating to. Her Majesty's Colonial Possessions, part ii, 1873, pp. 

 143, 145. 



