NOTES ON THE SEAL AND WHALE FISHEBY. 105 



ice was most unfavourable, it being compacted into vast sheets of 

 great thickness, which the vessels were quite unable to penetrate 

 except by occasional openings or cracks, in one of which the 

 6 Mastiff ' met with her disaster. An attempt was made by her, 

 on the 14th of March, to reach the main body of the Seals about 

 seventy-two miles N.N.E. of the Funks by passing up one of 

 these lanes of open water, when a sudden change of wind caused 

 the floes to close in upon her, and in less than two hours she 

 sank, crushed by the ice, with 7000 Seals on board. Happily 

 her crew were saved by other vessels in her vicinity. 



The story of the ' Greenland ' is a sad one. On the 21st of 

 March she had four watches on the ice, consisting of 189 men 

 (out of a crew of 207), recovering panned Seals, of which there 

 were about 20,000 ; later on she took on board the first watch 

 consisting of thirty-five men, and on proceeding to recall the 

 others the steamer got jammed in sight of the men, who were 

 unable to reach her owing to open water between them and the 

 vessel ; at 4.30 the storm broke with such fury that the ship 

 barely escaped foundering. At five o'clock the next day the gale 

 somewhat abated, and they succeeded in rescuing one hundred 

 men, all of whom were frost-bitten, and some badly injured by 

 falls on the ice. The wind then again increased to such a degree 

 that it was impossible to get the boats out. On the 23rd six 

 more men were picked up alive, and sixteen dead. Only one 

 other dead man was subsequently recovered, and on the 26th the 

 search was abandoned and the 'Greenland' bore up for home, 

 seriously damaged, and with twenty-five of her crew dead on 

 board, twenty-three others being missing. The two men lost 

 from the ' Leopard ' probably perished from exhaustion, or 

 walked into the water through ice-blindness ; a third man was 

 fifty -nine hours on the ice, and in a deplorable condition when 

 rescued. Such a chapter of accidents has never previously been 

 known in the Seal fishery, and the circumstances under which 

 the misfortunes occurred bring forcibly to mind the dangers and 

 hardships owing to sudden atmospheric changes, as well as the 

 personal toil and risk which are experienced in the prosecution 

 of this arduous and perilous occupation. 



The young Harp Seals were struck by most of the vessels on 

 the 13th of March, which, falling on Sunday, killing did not begin 



