SEAL-HUNTING NEWFOUNDLAND DISTRICT. 497 



and shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, but especially the 

 ice-floes to the eastward of these coasts ; (3) the Spitsbergen 

 and Jan Mayen seas ; (4) Nova Zembla and the adjacent waters ; 

 (5) the White Sea. In addition to these districts (6) the Cas- 

 pian Sea affords an important seal-fishery. 



1. West Greenland. Along the West Greenland coasts seai- 

 huutiug is mainly prosecuted by the natives of the country, 

 and is their chief means of support. Dr. Eink states that the 

 average annual catch amounts to about 89,000 Seals. Of these 

 2,000 to 3,000, belonging mainly to the larger species, are con- 

 sumed as food ; the remainder consist chiefly of Harp Seals 

 {Phoca groenlandica), but embrace many Einged Seals [Phoca 

 fcetida), and Harbor Seals {Phoca vitulina). Eather more than 

 one-half of the skins taken are exported, while the rest are 

 used by the inhabitants of Greenland. The Greenlanders, 

 hunting chiefly with the harpoon and kayak, or the rifle, are 

 confined in their operations to the immediate vicinity of the 

 coast.* 



2. Newfoundland JDistrict. Many Seals are taken at the Mag- 

 dalen and other islands at the mouth of the Gulf of Saint 

 Lawrence as well as along the shores of Newfoundland, in nets 

 or with the gun, but by far the greater part are captured on 

 the floating ice to the eastward of Newfoundland, to which sev- 

 eral hundred vessels annually repair at the proper season, and 

 where alone the yearly catch aggregates about half a million 

 Seals. This, indeed, is the sealing-ground par excellence of the 

 world, twice as many Seals being taken here by the Newfound- 

 land fleet alone as by the combined sealing-fleets of Great Brit- 

 ain, Germany, and Norway in the icy seas about Jan Mayen, or 

 the so-called " Greenland Sea" of the whalemen and sealers. 



According to Charlevoix (see beyond, p. 554) thousands of 

 Seals were taken along the shores of the Gulf of Saint Law- 

 rence as early as the beginning of the last centiiry, but a high 

 authority on the subject Mr. Michael Carroll,! of Bona vista, 

 Newfoundland states that the seal-fishery was not regularly 

 prosecuted, at least in vessels especially equipped for the pur- 

 pose, prior to the year 1763. As early as 1787 the business had 

 already begun to assume importance, during which year nearly 

 five thousand Seals were taken. Twenty years later (1807) 



* Danish Greenland, its People and its Products, pp. 129, 130. 

 t Seal and Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland, 1873, p. 7. 



Misc. Pub. No. 12 32 



