THE NORTH ATLANTIC SEAL FISHERY. 475 



portant part in the history of the species here under consideration, and is, moreover, of such high 

 commercial importance as to render a somewhat detailed account of the general subject indispen- 

 sable in the present connection. As all the species hunted in the northern waters belong to the 

 North American fauna, the consideration of the subject involves other hunting-grounds than 

 those geographically connected with the North American continent. 



"The principal ' seating-grounds' in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans are : (1) the West 

 Greenland coasts; (2) Newfoundland, the coast of Labrador, and the islands and shores of the 

 Gulf of Saint Lawrence, but especially the ice-floes to the eastward of these coasts ; (3) the Spitz- 

 bergen and Jan Majeu seas; (4) Nova Zembla and the adjacent waters; (5) the White Sea. In 

 addition to these districts (6) the Caspian Sea affords an important seal-fishery." * 



EXTENT OF THE FISHERY. Mr. Allen has given an extended statistical account of the seal- 

 fisheries of the North Atlantic, from which it appears that along the West Greenland coasts seal 

 hunting is mainly prosecuted by the natives of that country and is their chief means of support, 

 the average annual catch amounting, according to Rink, to about eighty-nine thousand seals, the 

 skins of about half of which are exported. 



" Many seals," says Mr. Allen, " are taken at the Magdalen 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 New- 

 foundland, to which several 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 Newfoundland fleet alone as 

 by the combined sealing fleets of Great Britain, Germany, and Norway in the icy seas about Jan 

 Mayen, or the so called 'Greenland Sea' of the whalemen and sealers. 



" According to Charlevoix, thousands of seals were taken along the shores of the Gulf 

 of Saint Lawrence as early as the beginning of the last century, but a high authority on 

 the subject Mr. Michael Carroll, of Bonavista, Newfoundland states that the seal fishery was 

 not regularly prosecuted, at least in vessels especially equipped for the purpose, 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) thirty vessels from New- 

 foundland alone were engaged in the prosecution of sealing voyages, and subsequently the number 

 became greatly increased. In the year 1834 one hundred and twenty- five vessels, manned by three 

 thousand men, sailed from the single port of St. John's ; two hundred and eighteen vessels, with 

 nearly five thousand men, from Conception Bay, and nineteen from Trinity Bay, besides many 

 others from other ports, making in all not less than three hundred and seventy-five, with crews 

 numbering in the aggregate about nine thousand men.t To these are to be added a considerable 

 number from Nova Scotia (chiefly from Halifax) and the Magdalen Islands. In 1857 the New- 

 foundland sealing-fleet exceeded three hundred and seventy vessels, their 'united crews numbering 

 thirteen thousand six hundred men.' The total catch of seals for that year was 500,000, valued at 

 425,000, provincial currency. \ The business at this date seems to have attained its maximum so 

 far as the number of men and vessels are concerned, the number of vessels subsequently employed 

 falling to below two hundred, which has since still further decreased. Yet the number of seals 

 annually captured has not apparently diminished, the business being prosecuted in larger vessels, 

 which secure larger catches. According to statistics furnished by Governor Hill, C. B., of New- 



* JOEL ASAPH ALLEN: History of North American Pinnipeds: Department of the Interior; Washington: 1880. 



"tBoNNYCASTLE: Newfoundland in 1832, vol. i, p. 159." 



"t CARROLL: Seal and Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland, p. 7." 



