114 The Whale and Seal Fisheries, 



Mr. Patterson mentioning the catches of this present season by 

 the s.s. " Terra Nova" and another vessel. Five of the Dundee 

 and Peterhead fleet were lost last year. For these particulars 

 Mr. Patterson said he was indebted to his friend Mr. George 

 Halley, of Dundee. After some mention of the seal, whale, 

 and walrus fisheries, carried on principally by the Norwegians 

 in European Arctic waters, the lecturer gave an interesting 

 account, derived from his friend Mr. Henry Seebohm, of an 

 important whale fishery that is carried on by steamers, with 

 their headquarters on land on the Varanger Fiord, between 

 Norway and Russia, and also mentioned an important shark 

 fishery that is prosecuted with much success and profit near 

 Iceland. Mr. Patterson next gave a brief account of the 

 abundance of seal life on the Alaskan coasts and Aleutian 

 Islands, in the North Pacific and Behring's Sea, and concluded 

 his paper by a description of the pursuit and capture of the fur 

 seals on the Pribylov Islands, St. Paul's, and St. George, where 

 these creatures are to be found in myriads during the season ; 

 but a wise restriction as to the numbers that may be taken is 

 preserving the race from that annihilation that seems to be 

 threatening the seals in other places. 



At the conclusion of his paper Mr. Patterson exhibited the 

 skull of a very rare cetacean, the White-beaked Dolphin, 

 Delphinus a/birostris, the only example of the species the 

 capture of which has been recorded in Ireland. This occurred 

 at Donaghadee, and the record of the capture was made by 

 Mr. M'Gowan of that place. 



