188 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the Whales have not changed — that the celebrated capture of 

 forty-four Whales, by Capt. Suttar, of the ' Resolution,' in 1814, 

 was effected in the same latitude as produced the Greenland 

 Whales of the past season. Capt. Suttar's average was 5 tons 

 13 cwts. ; and fourteen of the Greenland Whales last season, 

 taken by two vessels fishing together in the same latitude as 

 Suttar's, gave precisely the same average. 



It is difficult to say what is the value of commodities which 

 are hardly marketable; but at ^20 per ton the 477 tons of oil 

 brought home by the Dundee and Peterhead vessels would be 

 worth ;£9540, and the 18^ tons of bone, at say £1100 per ton all 

 round,* another ;£90,350, or a total of ^£29,890, against ^31,800 

 in the season of 1885. 



There has been a further considerable falling off in the 

 British Bottle-nose fishery, only 23 Whales, yielding 22 tons of 

 oil, having been brought in against 84 killed in 1885: but 

 I am informed that the Norwegians have in the past season 

 killed the enormous number of IGOO or 1700 of these creatures, 

 which has so flooded the markets of London and Glasgow with 

 their oil that it has been sold as low as .£17 or ^18 per ton, — a 

 circumstance which will account for the neglect of this branch of 

 the fishery by the Scotch vessels, the owners of which not many 

 years ago realised ^50 or ;£60 per ton for the same oil. 



Some of the vessels brought home very miscellaneous 

 cargoes — 1033 White Whales, 320 Walruses, and many Narwhals 

 and Bears — scarcity of " big game," I presume, rendering the 

 pursuit of such small deer the more keen. 



During his voyage to the Greenland fishery, when in lat. 

 70° N. 16° W., or about half-way between Jan Mayen and 

 Greenland, Capt. Fairweather, of the ' Aurora,' reports a 

 singular phenomenon. On August 16th, about mid-day, his 

 vessel received a sudden shock, caused by what he considers 

 must have been an earth- (or sea-) quake. The " sensations," he 

 says, " felt by those on board were as if the ship were moving 



* Some "size-bone" {i.e., bone the slips of which are six feet and 

 uxDwards in length) has recently been sold at ^1550 per ton ; but as the 

 " undersize " bone produces only half the price of the " size," the price for the 

 average is largely reduced. This must have been particularly the case in the 

 past season, many of the Whales being very small, and the proportion of 

 undersize bone being consequently unusually large. 



