100 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
had under 1000 each, and the ‘ Intrepid,’ with 4500 Seals, was’ 
wrecked, her crew being brought home by two Norwegian 
vessels. To this number must be added the produce of 5852 
seals, the bulk of which was brought home from a station. 
in Cumberland Gulf by the ‘Germania,’ raising the total’ 
northern fishery to 32,302. 
The value of the 103,574 skins brought home this season 
from Newfoundland and Greenland at 6s. per skin would 
represent a sum of £31,072, to which must be added the 
probable produce of 1317 tons of oil at £20 per ton, or 
£26,340, making a total of £57,412, against a similar estimate 
in 1884 of £50,553. The 1885 total is helped up by the very 
heavy catches of some of the Newfoundland vessels, but the 
money estimate, owing to the depressed state of trade and the 
uncertain value of produce, is approximate only. 
Captain Gray is still of opinion that the season opens too 
early, and is endeavouring to obtain an extension of the close 
time until the 10th of April; opinion amongst the sealers seems 
not to be unanimous with regard to the desirability of such an 
extension, but there can be no doubt the Greenland sealing 
is rapidly becoming unremunerative, whilst the produce is all but 
unsaleable ; added to which the seasons of late have seemed to 
fight against the sealers, so that even the splendidly constructed 
vessels which leave the ports of Dundee and Peterhead can 
barely live through the weather they have experienced. It seems 
evident that, at least in the case of the Greenland Seals, the 
time is rapidly approaching when it will not pay to incur the 
serious outlay and risk necessary in pursuing them, and to 
this cause it will probably be due if the Seals escape total 
destruction. It is by no means certain, however, that even the 
withdrawal of the Scotch vessels would have any beneficial 
effect, for the field would then be left clear to the Norwegians, 
with whom the Scotch cannot compete in consequence of the 
less expensive manner in which the former are enabled to work 
their vessels ; they would then probably congregate in greater 
numbers than at present, and, as smaller cargoes would pay, 
then the work of extermination would still be continued. Look- 
ing at the matter from all points of view it seems to the writer 
that an extension of the close time, say to the 10th of April, even 
if attended with a present loss, is the only way of rescuing this 
