Z-Ii. 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THIRD SERIES. 



VoL.VIII.l APRIL, 1884. [No. 88. 



NOTES ON THE SEAL A.ND WHALE FISHERY OF 1882. 

 By Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S. 



The Ne-wfoundlancl Seal Fishery, although vigorously prose- 

 cuted for the past 120 years, has been strangely neglected by 

 British vessels, and, so far as this country is concerned, is 

 quite a recent industry. The season of 1876 was the first, with 

 one trifling exception, in which our sealers took part in the 

 annual harvest of the Labrador ice. At present several vessels 

 belonging to British owners are annually present at the fishing, 

 but hitherto Dundee is the only British port from which vessels 

 are dispatched direct to St. John's. They leave Dundee about 

 the first week in February, and having made up their full 

 complement of hands clear out from St. John's on the 10th March. 

 They are allowed to take Seals as soon after that date as they 

 can come up with them. If successful in getting a cargo early, 

 they land their produce at St. John's, and make a second trip to 

 the ice, or proceed to the north of Iceland to shoot Hooded Seals 

 before going north to the Whale-fishery. 



In Greenland the close time terminates with the 2nd April. 

 The main take of Seals is speedily over, but some of the crews 

 continue to shoot old Seals, or go south to Iceland to look for 

 Hooded Seals, till the 20th May, when they take their departure 

 for the Whale-fishery, for which purpose they proceed to Davis 

 Straits, or to the ice between Greenland and Spitzbergen. 



The Seal which forms the chief object of pursuit, both in the 

 Labrador and Greenland Seas, is known by the sealers as the 



ZOOLOGIST. — APKIL, 1884. L 



