44 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of bone. On August 19th the 'Polar Star ' bore up for home, 

 arriving at Dundee, all well, on the 28th. 



The ' Active ' had a very successful voyage, capturing nine 

 Whales, an unheard-of number for Greenland of late years. She 

 left Dundee on April 10th, and Lerwick on the 15th; favoured 

 by wind and weather, the land of Spitzbergen was made on the 

 eleventh day after leaving Lerwick, and Whales were almost 

 immediately sighted, but, owing to severe frost and gales, little 

 could be done in the way of capture ; fortune however was with 

 them, and two good Whales were killed unusually early in the 

 season. Other Whales were met with early in May, and on 

 the 20th, a large Whale was harpooned in a heavy gale of wind 

 which lasted three days, and after a struggle for fourteen hours, 

 and a loss of fifteen lines from fouling in the ice, it was killed. 

 The next Whale gave them very little'trouble : it was one of those 

 previously mentioned as lost by the ' Polar Star,' and was found 

 to be floating dead. On June 6th a large Whale was struck, and 

 the harpoon drew ; but fortune again favoured them, for a second 

 one which had been harpooned by the ' Polar Star ' and lost, was 

 picked up. Both these Whales, having once been " loose," were 

 the property of the finder, although in each case the harpoon of 

 the ' Polar Star' was found in them. Three others were taken in 

 the same vicinity, making eight Whales killed before the middle 

 of June. It was not until July 26th that the ninth and last 

 Whale was killed, and, after continuing the search until August 

 21st, the ' Active ' departed for home, arriving at Dundee on the 

 31st, with a living Polar Bear as passenger. The nine Whales 

 yielded 81 tons of oil and 85 cwt. of bone. The success of the 

 Greenland fishery seems to be due to the condition of the ice, and 

 the favourable position of the south-east pack. 



The accounts from Davis Straits are unanimous as to the failure 

 of the fishery there being due to the great quantity of ice which 

 afforded abundant cover to the Whales, very few of which were 

 seen and only three captured. The ice never cleared out, and not 

 a single Whale was seen in the fall. Some of the vessels had great 

 difficulty in extricating themselves at the close of the season. Of 

 the five Dundee ships in the Davis Straits fishery, two only were 

 successful in taking Black Whales ; two others had 715 and 709 

 White Wales respectively ; and the ' Terra Nova,' which, however, 

 as before mentioned, had been very successful at the Newfoundland 



