204 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



I am not quite sure, after all that has been said ou this subject, that the whale is getting extinct, 

 and am beginning to entertain convictions that its supposed scarcity in recent times is a great deal 

 owing to its escaping to remote, less known, and less visited localities. It is said to be coming 

 back again to the coast of Greenland, now that the hot pursuit of it has slackened in that portion 

 of Davis Strait. The varying success of the trade is owing not so much to the want of whales as 

 to the ill luck of the vessels in coming across their haunts. Every now and again cargoes equal to 

 anything that was obtained in the best days of the trade are obtained. Only seven years ago I 

 cuine home to England ('shipmates,' as the phrase goes), with no less than thirty 'right whales,' in 

 addition to a miscellaneous menagerie of Arctic animals, dead and alive, and a motley human crew 

 a company so outre that I question if ever naturalist, or even whaler, sailed with the like before."* 

 In 1877 the Scotch whaling and sealing vessels began the capture of the bottle-nose whale 

 (Hyperoodon rostratus); in 1878 this fleet killed 9; in 1879, 8; in 1880, 32; in 1881, 111, and in 

 1883, 403. These whales are found in .Davis Strait and adjacent waters and eastward of Green- 

 land from Cape Farewell to Iceland, Jan-Mayen, and Bear Island, and as far north as seventy- 

 seven degrees north latitude. They are about 30 feet long, and yield an excellent quality of oil.t 



RUSSIA AND RUSSIAN AMERICA. 



In a pamphlet by Dr. Grimm on Russian fisheries the whale fisheries of that country are 

 thus discussed : " The beluga or white whale (Delphinapterm leucas) is from 14 to 25 feet long. 

 Beluga fishing is carried on in the White Sea, where the beluga lives all the year round ; also 

 in the gulfs of the N. Dvina, Ouega, Kondolon and Mezen ; in the Arctic Ocean it is found to the 

 east of the White Sea, near the mouth of the Petchora, along the Timan coast, chiefly near the 

 river Piosha ; near Nova Zembla, at the mouth of the Obi, and farther on. In chasing fish, it goes 

 very high up the rivers, for instance, up the Obi. It is caught in nets, with which it is surrounded, 

 drawn to a shallow place and killed in what is called the dvor, or yard ; from four to six boats 

 take part in the work. The quantity of oil got from the beluga is various. Sometimes a herd of 

 large animals have been killed, each of which yielded about 12 poods [432 pounds] of blubber, and 

 at other times one meets belugas that yield only some 4 to 5 poods [144 to 180 pounds]. The 

 exact number of beluga caught in a year is not known, as in the statistics of the fisheries the 

 beluga is classed with all the walrus, seals, whales, &c. The dolphin (Delphinus dclphix and D. 

 phoccma) is found in considerable numbers in the Black Sea. From this sea, in chasing fish, it 

 enters the various gulfs and bays and into the Sea of Azof. The Turks come into the Black Sea 

 after the dolphin, chiefly visiting Pischoonda. Our fishermen sometimes catch it, but generally 

 content themselves with a stray dolphin that may get in among the fish. Delphmus phoc&na is 

 sometimes met with in the Baltic, and even has come up as far as Oronstadt, but very rarely. 



" There are four kinds of whales in the Arctic Ocean : Mcyaptera boops, Bahvnoptera laticeps, 

 Balcenoptera musculus, and B. Sibbaldii. The last is the one that whalers chiefly kill, the first three 

 being killed no\\ and then. Notwithstanding the efforts of the Russian Government to increase 

 whaling, it is still in a very primitive condition here. The Laps and Pomors, it is true, use whale- 

 blubber, but it is procured from the carcasses of whales that are often driven ashore. They nevei 

 kill whales, owing, perhaps, to the false idea that the whale drives the moyva (Mallotus arcticus) 

 to the shore, and that therefore whales are useful to the fisheries, and that they ought not to be 



" Notes on the History and Geographical Relations of the Cetacea frequenting Davis Strait and Baffin's Bay. By 

 Robert Brown, F. R. G. S. Proc. London Zoolog. Soc., 1868. 



tFor a full discussion of this fishery see papers by Mr. Thomas Southwell in London Zoologist, and in Transac- 

 tions of Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, vol. iii. In 1883 Mr. Southwell reports the Scotch fishery as fallen 

 off in consequence of the number of small Norwegian vessels attracted to this new fishery. 



