278 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 



HUDSON BAY. 



1889 One ship. 



1890- 



1891 One ship, 4 whales, 4,400 Ibs. tone. 



1892 One ship, 2 1.600 



1893 Two ships, 

 1894 One ship, 8 

 1X95 Three ships, 6 

 1896- -Two ships, 4 

 1x97 Three ships, 19 



18,500 

 4,500 



10,300 

 4,100 



20,175 



1898 



1899 One ship, 6 whales, 6,000 Ibs. bone. 



1900 One ship, 8 7,500 



1901 One ship. Burnt. 



1902 



1903 Two ships, 2 whales, 1,800 Ibs. bone. 



1904 One ship, 1 500 



The information to 186fi has been taken from the narrative of C. F. Hall's second 

 Arctic expedition. That from 1889 to 1901 has been furnished by Captain George 

 Comer, American whaler Era. 



Kight American whaling ships have, to the knowledge of Captain Comer, been 

 lost in Hudson Bay. , 



SEALS. 



There exists at present considerable confusion in the number 

 of species and the classification of the northern seals. A scien- 

 tific argument on classification is beyond the province of this 

 report, and it need only be mentioned that, after careful 

 inquiry from the Eskimos of Baffin island and Hudson bay, 

 there is no doubt that, including the walrus, there are but six 

 species of seals in the northern seas of eastern America, and 

 that the other species named are simply due to varieties of age, 

 size and colour. 



The present account is confined to the distribution, habits 

 and uses of these animals. 



Callocephalus vitulinus, Linn. The Harbour seal, Fresh- 

 water seal, or Ranger (Kassigiak, Eskimo), is common but not 

 plentiful on all the coasts. It is found usually about the mouths 

 of rivers, and in bays and fiords. It is also found in some of the 

 larger lakes of Labrador and Baffin island. These lakes are often 

 far inland and high above the present level of the sea, and 

 there is no doubt that in a number of them the seals reside 

 permanently. The young, unlike those of the other seals, are 

 produced in July on the rocks about the banks of rivers. 



