124 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Sealing captured 177,733 seals (compared with 195,396 for 

 eighteen vessels in 1886) ; of these the ' Terra Nova' took 35,575; 

 the 'Eagle,' 19,960; the 'Leopard,' 15,331; and the 'Ranger,' 

 15,201. The remaining sixteen vessels secured between them 

 101,666, or an average of 6354 each; the average of the whole 

 twenty vessels was 8886. It will be seen that only four or five 

 of the steamers had paying cargoes. The value of the oil was 

 about £22 per ton (252 gallons), and that of the skins ranged 

 from 4s. 6d. for young, to 15s. for old ones. Six Dundee vessels 

 are included in the above, which captured 51,504 seals between 

 them, but only one, the ' Terra Nova,' had more than 7000 seals, 

 the remaining five having 25,794 between them — a number about 

 equal to that secured by the ' Terra Nova ' alone. 



The young sealing in the Greenland Sea was practically a 

 failure. Three Scotch vessels and about twenty-two Norwegians 

 were present; the 'Polar Star' killed about 1100, but the ' Hope' 

 and the 'Erik' missed them altogether. About 15,000 young 

 seals are believed to have been killed, only the ' Magdalena' 

 securing a fair number (3500), all the others being very poorly 

 fished. The failure of the Greenland young sealing was mainly 

 due to a heavy gale of wind from the N.W., which blew with great 

 force during the last few clays of March; on the 31st, the point 

 of ice in lat. 73° on which the young seals were pupped became 

 detached, and by the force of the gale drifted south to 70° 35', 

 4° 30' W., some seventy miles S.E. of Jan Mayen, where the 

 breeding pack was eventually found by the sealers; but it is 

 possible many of the young ones perished by being washed off 

 the ice ; the small number killed is therefore no indication that 

 a larger number than usual escaped to increase the breeding pack. 

 At Newfoundland and the Greenland old and young sealing 

 together, ten Scotch vessels killed 57,240 seals (against 49,570 

 last season, that number being greatly helped by the 'Terra 

 Nova's' very successful Newfoundland catch of 25,575. These at 

 an average price of 6s. per skin would represent a sum of £17,172, 

 and 720 tons of oil at £19 per ton a further sum of £13,680, gross 

 total £30,852, against a similar estimate for 1886 of £26,511. 

 Included in the Seal oil is the produce of about 500 Walruses 

 brought home by the Davis Straits vessels. 



As already stated, the Davis Straits whaling voyage was 

 virtually a failure. There were present eight vessels from 



