504 FAMILY PHOCID^E. 



English in seal-hunting in the Arctic Seas were some Danish 

 and German vessels, which certainly were rarely an impedi- 

 ment to these masters of the sea ; but now came also the Nor- 

 wegians, led by Herrn Svend Foyn ; and however unskillful 

 they may have been at first,* it was not long before they began 

 to prove troublesome to their old teachers, and as the Norwe- 

 gians some years later began to make use of the rifle, shoot- 

 ing the full grown male Seal, they by this means thanks to 

 our good marksmen were frequently more successful than the 

 English themselves $ then it occurred to the latter that by the 

 aid of artificial power they could triumph over the poor Nor- 

 wegians who had only natural forces at their command : and 

 ^oon floated colossi with powerful steam-engines and dingy 

 Siiils upon the waves of the icy seas, terrifying alike the sailing- 

 vessels and the Seals. 



"The English have yet another reason besides that already 

 given for the introduction of steam-power, namely, that their 

 voyages to Davis's Strait for Whales absolutely require the 

 use of steam, this enabling them very easily to join in the catch 

 in the northern ice-seas ; the ships, returning home at the close 

 of the seal-catching season, discharging their cargoes, etc., then 

 proceeding on the voyage to Davis's Strait, where they arrive 

 in time to engage in whaling ; in this way they find employment 

 for their steamships the greater part of the year. 



"It is my opinion that the above-mentioned reasons have led 

 the English to employ steam in seal-hunting ; they surely saw 

 the hurtfulness of it, but to the stronger belongs the lion's share 

 as long as there is anything to have. Meanwhile the Germans, 

 as well as the Norwegians, grew tired of competing with sailing- 

 vessels against the English steamships, and therefore these na- 

 tions built steamships in order to obtain an equal footing in this 

 hitherto unequal struggle. 



"The English are not at all blind to the fact that their golden 

 time in the Arctic Seas is apparently over, for they well know 

 that now in Norway, as well as in Germany, steamships are 

 built for seal-hunting. I had evidence of this last winter in a 

 conference with one of the before-mentioned [in an earlier part 

 of his paper] English steamship captains ; it was not less in- 



* "I have heard that, as when Foyn for the first time participated in the 

 hunt, the men carried the young Seals on board alive on their backs ; later 

 they were conveyed on sledges drawn by four men, all of which naturally 

 gave great satisfaction to the practical Englishmen." 



