SEAL-HUNTING JAN MA YEN SEALING-GROUNDS. 503 



for a short time with the young ; then they also go off in the 

 direction taken by the males. The young, left to their fate, 

 still remain some days without nourishment, and then also 

 take to the water. If the weather be somewhat favorable, 

 and especially if no snow is falling, immediately follows the 

 "EnterfalP, as the destruction of the Seals upon the ice by 

 the seal-killers (Kobbenschlagers *) is called.t 



The great destruction of Seals in the icy seas about Jan Ma- 

 yen for many years prior to 1870 began to show its effects so 

 strongly at this time as to raise grave fears for the results. At- 

 tention was strongly drawn to the matter in 1871 by Captain 

 Jakob Melsom, of Tonsberg, in an article published that year 

 in Petermann's " Geographische Mittheilungen," entitled "Der 

 Seehundsfang im nordlicheii Eismeere." In this memoir he 

 discussed at length the immediate causes that led to the de- 

 pletion, and suggested a remedy for it which has since been 

 adopted, namely, an international agreement for a "close-sea- 

 son n for the Seals. He traces the decrease in great part to the 

 introduction of steamships into the sealing-fleets, and the too 

 early arrival of vessels at the sealing-grounds. Captain Mel- 

 som's paper throws so much light upon the general subject that 

 I deem it of interest to give a translation of tjje more especially 

 important portions of his memoir. 



Says Captain Melsom: " There is good evidence that steam- 

 power is detrimental to the sealing business. Eespecting this 

 point I will mention only the fact that steamships have it in 

 their power to reach, nearly every year, the breeding- grounds 

 of the Seals so early that the young are scarcely born before 

 the mothers are killed. The young are then worthless ; the 

 real capital, if I may so speak, the old Seals, is imprudently 

 expended, and the profits are entirely lost. If in this way great 

 numbers of old female Seals are destroyed without being re- 

 placed by a proportionate number of young ones, every one 

 can see what must be the rc^sult.f 



"It may be asked why the English, who are still our teach- 

 ers in this field, have introduced steamships. This I willallow 

 myself to answer. Until the year 1847 the competitors of the 



* The Germans very appropriately term the butchery of the young Seals 

 upon the ice seal-slaughter ("Robben-schlag"), and the butchers seal- 

 slaughterers (" Robbenschliigers"). 



t Petermann's Geogr. Mitth., Erganzungs heft Nr. 26, 1869, p. 81. 



t "It is well known that the Seal brings forth young only once a year, 

 and only one at a time." 



