THE SEAL AND WHALE FISHERY OF 18R3. 399 



were it not for the attraction of the Bottle -nosed Whale fishery, 

 whether our large vessels would be tempted to go north to the 

 Greenland sealing, rather than, as is now done by the Dundee 

 vessels, to Newfoundland, where a much greater chance of success 

 at present awaits them. 



The S.S. ' Mazinthien' of Dundee went on the rocks off Peter- 

 head on her outward passage on March 13th and became a total 

 wreck, but happily her crew of fifty men was saved. 



The success of the Davis Strait whalers in 1883 was very 

 poor indeed. Six Dundee vessels went to Davis Strait, and 

 one Peterhead vessel to Cumberland Gulf; one of these, the 

 'Arctic,' fished only for White Whales, of which she captured 1220, 

 the remaining six killed eighteen Whales, some of which were 

 very small, the whole yielding only 208 cwt. of bone ; the ' Esqui- 

 maux' killed three Whales for 21 tons of oil and 13 cwt. of bone. 

 The ' Thetis,' however, was as successful with the Eight Whales as 

 she had been earlier in the season with the Seals, having killed 

 six Whales, which averaged 16 cwt. of bone each, in addition to 

 791 White Whales. The ' Thetis,' by the fouling of a line, lost 

 her carpenter and boatswain, the boat was carried under, and the 

 remainder of the crew were rescued with difficulty by a boat from 

 the ship. 



In all 2736 White Whales were killed; these creatures are 

 captured by placing nets across the entrance to inlets and fjords, 

 up which the Whales go in search of salmon. When the tide 

 retires they are left by the water and easily killed, yielding a ton 

 of oil to every six or seven Whales ; their skins, however, are 

 valuable, and when dressed constitute the "porpoise hide" so 

 much prized for its strength and imperviousness to water ; the 

 hides are worth about Is. 6d. per ft. 



The probable cause of the want of success in the Davis 

 Straits fishery is the over-fishing, by which the Whales have 

 become unapproachable, and decline to show themselves in any- 

 thing like open water. How far this is due to the injudicious use 

 of steam on the whaling grounds, and to the keen competition 

 of the whalers, I do not venture an opinion. 



Only one Whale was brought home by the Greenland vessels ; 

 this was killed by the ' Hope,' Capt. J. Gray, and was a very small 

 fish, yielding only 11 tons of oil and 11 cwt. of bone. Capt. David 

 Gray went north, but finding the ice too fast, instead of waiting 



