68 R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OE' GREENLAND. 



There seems intleed little doubt that the fishery must fail in 



course of time, as have the Seal and Whale fisheries in some 



other parts of the world, and if Seal-hunting is pursued with the 



energy it is at present, that day cannot be far distant. Some of 



the sealers laugh at this idea; but where is the enormous produce 



the South Seas used to yield, superior to anything ever heard of 



in the North ? No doubt the South Sea hunters said the same 



thing, and doubtless when the inhabitants of Smecrenberg, that 



strangest of all strange villages, saw the Whales sporting by 



thousands in their bays, and the oil-boilers steaming above the 



peaks of Spitzbergen, they laughed at the idea of their ever 



becoming scarce ! Yet how true that idea has proved ! For in 



our day the waters of those high northern seas are rarely troubled, 



even by a wandering Mysticete, that perchance may have missed 



its way in making a passage from one secure retreat to another. 



So will it ultimately be with the Seals. Indeed, some are even 



now of opinion that they are diminishing in numbers ; at least, 



they have evidently reached their zenith, as shown by statistics ; 



and, taking into consideration the appearance the young Seals 



presented on the ice in 1861, they did not approach the numbers 



reported to have been seen by sealers in many previous years. 



The South Sea ''fisheries'' became extinct in 15 years, and, 



making all allowance for the protection afforded to the Greenland 



Seals by the ice, and supposing the sealing prosecuted witli the 



same vigour as at present, I have little hesitation in stating my 



opinion that before 30 years shall have passed away the Seal 



fishery, as a source of commercial revenue, will have come to a 



close, and the pj-ogeny of the immense number of Seals now 



swimming about in the Greenland waters will number but com- 



I)aratively few. This event will then form another era in the 



northern fisheries.* 



* History of the Dundee sealers 



1865 



4 vessels 



- 63,000 Seals. 



1866 



- 7 





- 58,000 „ 



1867 



- 11 





- 56,000 „ 



1868 



- 12 





- 16,670 „ 



1869 



- 11 





- 45,600 „ 



1870 



- 9 





- 90,450 „ 



1871 



- 9 



)) 



- 62,000 „ 



The " Arctic " had 



15,000, 



and the 



*' Esquimaux " 1 



up to the 11 tb of April. 

 14,330. The St. John's 

 Newfoundland sealers had at about the same time 23 1 ,000 Seals, making an 

 average of 21,000 each, the largest for many seasons. Most of them made 

 two trips. From the fir.st trip the average profit of each man was 300/. 



See also Mr. Yeaman's Notes on the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishery, 

 Keport Brit. Assoc, 1867, Trans, of Sect., p. 148. 



