104 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



hoped great advantages may be derived from these concessions, 

 but, as usual, there is considerable diversity of opinion. 



Great uncertainty always exists as to the locality in which the 

 breeding Seals will be found, and so entirely does this depend 

 upon circumstances which it is impossible to anticipate with any 

 degree of confidence, that the most experienced are often dis- 

 appointed in their forecasts. What usually takes place on the 

 east coast seems to be as follows : — Until the last days of 

 February the breeding Harp Seals are found frequenting the 

 neighbourhood of Greenbay and Whitebay, then, their time for 

 reproducing having arrived, they all disappear, going off in 

 search of suitable ice on which to whelp ; this, as a rule, they find 

 in about the latitude of Cape Bauld, sometimes comparatively 

 near, at other times farther off the land ; they then drift south 

 with the ice borne by the southerly arctic current, which probably 

 expands as its flows. But their progress is by no means an 

 uninterrupted one : many and violent are the storms to which 

 they are exposed, and the ice is driven hither and thither, some- 

 times comparatively open, at others rafted and piled in in- 

 extricable confusion, many of the young Seals perishing owing to 

 the ice-fields on which they lie being broken up. Westerly winds 

 drive the ice off the shore, and easterly winds in the contrary 

 direction, or it may be broken up and more or less dispersed by 

 northerly gales. The weather too is variable in the extreme, 

 the changes being often sudden and unexpected. Hence the 

 difficulty in forecasting the probable position of the breeding 

 pack, and the great risks attending their pursuit when found. 

 The Seals are very sagacious, and it is said of them that when 

 Greenbay and Whitebay are full of ice at whelping time they will 

 not go so far out to whelp as they would if the bays were free 

 from ice, their object appearing to be to get a good stretch of ice 

 between themselves and the land. 



The steamers, many of which had deserted St. John's in 

 favour of a more northerly point of departure, have in the past 

 season nearly all returned to that port. Eighteen vessels in all 

 (two less than in 1897) took part in the venture, five of them 

 visiting the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the remainder fishing off the 

 east coast. The latter found the Seals without loss of time 

 some distance to the N.E. of Funk Island, but the state of the 



