TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 149 



Dundee first engaged in the whale-fislieiy towards the close of the last century, 

 and had eight vessels employed in it in 1814, varying in size from 270 to upwards of 

 300 tons burden. The pursuit had proved profitable, as in the year 1839 ten ships 

 were engaged, but from that date for nineteen years the success appears to have 

 varied, the number employed then being reduced to four. 



In 1858 the late Mr. William Clark had the full-rigged ship, the 'Tay,'_of 

 above 600 tons register, converted into an auxiliary steam-screw whaler, being 

 the first successful introduction of steam power into the piu'suit from the port 

 of Dundee. 



Next year two new auxiliary screw-steamers, the ' Dundee ' and ' Narwhal,' 

 were built expressly for the seal- and whale-fishing. These tine vessels proved 

 the superiority of steam over sail-ships for prosecuting the North-Sea seal and 

 whale fisheries ; and since then, through local enterprise and energy, several new 

 powerful steam-whalers have been built, and several sail-ship whalers have been 

 converted into screw-steamers, and added to the Arctic fleet, there being now 

 twelve full-rigged auxiliary screw-steamers of from 400 to 600 tons register em- 

 ployed at the Greenland Seal and Davis Straits Whale fisheries, and no sailing- 

 sliip in the trade from Dundee, Dimdee ranking foremost in her steam- whale fleet 

 of the ports of Em-ope or America. The value of this fleet, with full equipments 

 for a season's fishing, with the requisite boiling &c. premises at port on shore, may 

 be roundly estimated at £200,000, and the gToss worth of a successful seal- and 

 whale-fishing at £120,000. Fishing by steam is more costly than by sail-ships ; 

 but as two voyages can be made in one year by steam, one to the sealing at Green- 

 land and a second to whaling at Davis Straits, with greater facilities, the extra 

 expense is more than counterbalanced. 



To accomplish the double voyages, vessels must leave Dimdee for the seal- 

 fishing in Greenland waters about the 1st of March, returning to port to dis- 

 charge their cargoes about the 25th of May ; and again sail for whaling at Davis 

 Sti-aits, after being from six to ten days in harbour, as may be required, to dis- 

 charge the produce of the sealing voyage, and to recoal. 



Each ship is equipped with eight fishing row-boats about twenty-five feet 

 long, and is manned with sixty-five to eighty hands for the seal-captures, and 

 fifty to sixty for whaling. 



The capture of 3000 seals is considered good work of a ship's crew in a day, 

 but stormy weather renders the numljer which may bo secured very uncertain. 



The whale-fishing at Greenland and Spitzbergen is now seldom prosecuted by 

 Dimdee ships, that at Davis Straits being prefon-ed. 



MECHANICAL SCIENCE. 



Address hj Prof. W. J. Macqtjoex Eanki.ve, C.E., LL.D., F.B.SS. L. cj- E. S,-c., 



President of the Section. 



It is well known that the most important part of the proceedings at the Annual 

 Meetings of the British Association consists in receiving reports of scientific re- 

 searches made dm-ing the previous year, and planning those to be made diu-ing 

 the ensuing year, whether by observation and experiment, or by collecting and 

 arranging existing information. The proposals for such researches originate in the 

 Committees of the several Sections, are then considered by the Committee of Re- 

 commendations, and are finally sanctioned by the General Committee ; and the re- 

 ports of them are read to the Sections with whom the proposals originated. I think 

 it may be useful on the present occasion to lay before the Meeting a brief summary 

 of the researches which have been made or recorded at the instance of the Mecha- 

 nical Section since 1850. As that was the year in which 1 became a member of the 

 Association, I will refrain fi'om extending the summary to earlier years, because 

 that duty would be better performed by some member who took part in the pro- 

 ceedings of those years. 



