182 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Smith, pi. iv. (text). Kestricted to dry sandy districts. Cape, 

 Damaraland (B. M.) 



50. Vipera corniita, Daud. Smith, 111. pi. xxsii. Vipera 

 lopliophrys, Smith, 111. pi. xsxiii. Cerastis lophophrys, Dum. & 

 Bibr. vii. p. 1444. " Hornsman " of the Cape colonists. Cape 

 (B. M.) 



NOTES ON THE SEAL AND WHALE FISHERY OF 1886. 

 By Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S. 



We must go back many years in the history of the Seal and 

 "Whale Fishery before we shall find so disastrous a season in 

 all respects as the past has been ; certainly it is unparalleled in 

 the history of the Dundee fishery : a season of great severity 

 has resulted in poor catches, still poorer prices for produce, and 

 in the loss of one ship at Newfoundland and four in Davis 

 Straits. It is not likely, with the present prospects, that any of 

 these will be replaced, and it is even doubtful whether all the 

 vessels which returned from last season's fishing will repeat the 

 venture in 1887 ; in addition to which there are rumours of a 

 partial desertion of the northern fishing-grounds for the purpose 

 of exploring the Polar seas of the Southern Hemisphere. 



The first disaster occurred on March 27th, when the Dundee 

 steamer ' Resolute ' was crushed in the ice in Notre Dame Bay, 

 her crew having barely time to save themselves by jumping on the 

 ice, where they suffered intensely from cold and exposure, having 

 to travel seventy miles over ice before thej' reached a place 

 of safety ; three of their number, at first believed to have been 

 lost, were subsequently picked up by the sealer ' Hector,' and 

 landed safely at St. John's. The * Resolute,' at the time of her 

 loss, had 20,000 Seals on board. Another Dundee vessel, the 

 ' Aurora,' had a narrow escape. Four days after leaving St. 

 John's she discovered the main pack of Seals, and had every 

 prospect of securing a full cargo, but a gale of great violence 

 coming on, which continued for several days, she was driven 

 before its force a distance of about one hundred miles, ultimately 

 to be stopped by an iceberg off Cape Bonavista, where she 

 remained in a position of great danger from the falling ice. Soon 

 after, a second iceberg floating down upon her crushed one of her 



