THE SEAL AND WHALE FISHERY OF 1887. 123 



A chart of the Greenland west-ice, showing its position at various 

 dates in the summer of 1881, will be found in the ' Proceedings of 

 the Eoyal Geographical Society' for that year, contributed by 

 Capt. D. Gray, than whom perhaps no man living has had greater 

 experience of the Greenland Seas. 



Comparatively mild southerly and south-easterly winds act 

 very rapidly upon the ice-margin, eating into its edge, and aided 

 by the accompanying swell the floes are quickly disrupted and 

 borne south by the prevailing currents, soon to be dissipated in 

 the warmer waters of the open sea. Owing to these causes, in 

 1886, in two summer months the breadth of the border of ice on 

 the shores of East Greenland was reduced from 400 to con- 

 siderably less than 100 miles. On the other hand, in severe 

 weather, even though accompanied by northerly winds, the lanes 

 of water between the "floes" become rapidly covered by young 

 ice, which prevents their disruption and southerly drift, thus 

 compacting the pack and preventing its disintegration. 



It would be interesting to watch the effects which the greater 

 or less extension eastward of the ice which borders the eastern 

 shores of Greenland may be supposed to have upon the climate 

 of the northern portion of our island, but my statistics are too 

 imperfect to admit of any reliable deductions. 



To return to the Whale Fishery : it seems probable that so 

 far as the expensively equipped Scotch vessels are concerned, — if 

 not already so, — it will soon prove unremunerative, and that if 

 better prices for produce are not speedily forthcoming, of which 

 there is at present no prospect, it will revert to a small and 

 inferior class of vessels such as those now sent out by the Nor- 

 wegians, and that, as a British industry, the Northern Seal and 

 Whale Fishery will become a thing of the past. 



The only casualty reported last season was the loss of the 

 1 Arctic,' so long and successfully commanded by Capt. Adams, 

 and the same vessel in which Capt. A. H. Markham accompanied 

 him in a whaling voyage to Baffin's Bay and Gulf of Boothia in 

 1873. Capt. Adams has left the 'Arctic,' in which he was 

 succeeded by Capt. Guy for some years, and now commands the 

 'Maud.' It appears that the 'Arctic,' in endeavouring to get 

 up Fox Channel, was damaged by the ice so seriously as to render 

 her subsequent abandonment in Cumberland Gulf necessary. 



Twenty British vessels which took part in the Newfoundland 



l 2 



