NOTES ON THE SEAL AND WHALE FISHERY OF 1884. 838 
in through the" ice, steaming about in search of the seals, the 
sailing ships having to remain near the sea-edge, able only to 
watch the movements of the steamers. Half-way between, a few 
of the weaker class of steamers were working about, their only 
chance being to get into the wake of a stronger vessel and follow.” 
Whilst thus cruising in the ice the motions of both seals and 
birds are closely watched, large numbers of gulls always 
frequenting the ice where the seals are breeding; the direction 
taken by every seal which is met with is closely watched, and if 
possible cross-bearings obtained from the different points, the 
better to indicate the position of the main body of the seals. 
On April 4th, after great exertions had been made to work 
through the ice, the breeding pack was discovered in lat. 78° 43'N., 
long. 3° 52’ E., covering a space of about eight miles in extent 
from east to west, and about a mile and a half broad; five Scotch 
vessels were present and six Norwegians. The ‘Eclipse’ managed 
to get within about four miles of the seals, and at 1 o’clock a.m. 
forty-eight men were sent on to the ice to kill and ‘‘bing”’ the 
young seals. This went on till the united crews of the ships 
present had killed off and ‘‘binged”’ the whole brood, which was 
accomplished at about noon on April 7th. The ‘‘binging” was 
performed as follows :—As soon as the seals were reached the 
officer in charge planted a flag in a prominent piece of ice, and 
immediately the crew commenced to kill and flense and drag the 
skins; towards it, until the ice was cleared within a radius of 
about two hundred yards; a “‘bing” was then completed and 
another flag planted farther on, and the work carried on as 
before, until the whole of the young seals were killed. Dragging 
the skins to the ship is an after-process, and is deferred till 
there are no more seals to kill; then comes the ‘making off” 
with the blubber, and the salting and stowing away of the skins. 
As no other breeding seals were met with, it may be fairly 
presumed that all the young brood perished. 
The result of the Greenland sealing, so far as the twelve 
British ships are concerned (of the sixteen Norwegians and two 
Swedes I have no return, but the young sealing alone is esti- 
mated to have yielded 75,000 seals to the united fleets, about 
26,000 of which fell to the share of the British vessels), was more 
satisfactory than that of Newfoundland, resulting in a total of 
39,700 old and young seals, being an average of 3308 against a 
