134 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



But all the vessels which leave the ports of Dundee and 

 Peterhead do not return successful. In the past year the ' Jan 

 Mayen' (Salmond) was lost, and the 'Hope' returned m April 

 with a broken shaft ; in time, however, to be fitted out once more 

 for the Arctic Seas in search of the lost ' Eira,' happily with the 

 most complete success. More than one of the ships missed the 

 Seals from being beset or other causes ; the chief reason, how- 

 ever, being that, from some unexplained cause, the old Seals 

 took to the ice much farther north and east than they were ever 

 known to have done before ; in fact, far beyond the limits laid 

 down in the Act of Parliament for their protection. It thus 

 happens that only eight out of the thirteen Scotch vessels which 

 sailed for the northern sealing voyage were successful, the total 

 take being 22,142 Seals, against 23,894 in the season of 1881 ; 

 but as the Norwegian vessels took even more Seals than our 

 own, it is probable that the whole brood was destroyed, and 

 that had more ships been present, it would only have resulted in 

 a lower average. 



Capt. Gray tells me that the old Seal-fishing in April was a 

 perfect failure, partly owing to the weather, and partly to the 

 heavy ice being surrounded by thin bay-ice, which prevented the 

 boats from getting near the Seals. 



The Dundee vessels, nine in number, which went on to 



■ Davis Straits in search of Plight Whales were rewarded with 



seventy-eight of these valuable monsters, which produced 770 



tons of oil and 582 cwts. of bone, which, with oil at ^33 per ton 



and bone at i^llSO per ton, would yield a return of A'58,876. 



In years gone by, when the Eight Whale formed almost the 

 only prize which was considered worth the attention of the 

 whalers, such small deer as Seals and White Whales were 

 looked upon as hardly worth the time employed in their capture ; 

 the ships pushed on, anxiously speculating upon the chance of 

 making the passage of the middle ice in Baffin's Bay, then so 

 tedious and dangerous an undertaking, or wended their way 

 north to the east coast of Greenland and the open waters of 

 Spitzbergen. Since about the year 1837, however, sealing has 

 been seriously prosecuted, I fear with the very serious result of 

 ruining what, if judiciously worked, might long have remained a 

 very lucrative business. The Whales are getting scarcer, and 

 the costly nature of the outfit in the present day, renders failure 



