NOTES ON THE SEAL AND WHALE FISHERY, 1894. 93 



yielding only 20 tons of oil and 15| cwt. of bone ; the second, 

 one Whale, with 8 tons of oil and 4 cwt. of bone ; and the third, 

 one Whale, of 10 tons of oil and l\ cwt. of bone ; — a miserable 

 return compared with the captures at the Straits fishery, which 

 averaged over 16 cwt. of bone each; and this deficiency was 

 not made up by the sealing, which was equally bad. Most of 

 the Whales taken of late years in the Greenland Seas have been 

 very young animals. Experts are therefore of opinion that there 

 must be breeding Whales there, although they cannot succeed in 

 finding them. It may be that the older Whales have become 

 extremely wary, and that it is only the young and inexperienced 

 which expose themselves to capture. 



Five vessels fished in Davis Straits, killing 15 Whales and 

 1261 White Whales. Of these the most successful was the 

 'Eclipse,' which returned with five fair-sized Whales, yielding 

 95 cwt. of bone ; the ' Terra Nova ' had also five Whales, producing 

 70 cwt. of bone; the 'Nova Zembla' four; the 'Balsena' one 

 Whale and 820 White Whales ; the ' Esquimaux ' had to be con- 

 tent with 432 White Whales only. All the vessels experienced 

 very bad weather early in the season, which so delayed them that 

 the majority of the fleet missed the "spring fishing," and there 

 was much weary waiting before they were rewarded by a capture. 

 At the end of 30 days the ' Nova Zembla ' was only 500 miles 

 from home. 



Capt. Guy describes the summer as one of the worst he had 

 ever experienced, extremely cold, foggy, and gales of wind of 

 almost daily occurrence. On July 8th, being beset in the " fast " 

 ice, the vessel had a very narrow escape of being crushed ; a huge 

 iceberg was observed approaching, from which there appeared to 

 be no way of escape, and all prepared to leave the ship. Down 

 came the iceberg, the lower edge of which caught the ship's 

 quarter ; such, however, was her strength that, instead of the 

 vessel being crushed as was expected, she heeled over on her 

 broadside, and, after being in that position for about four hours, 

 the iceberg sheared off, and she righted, to the relief of her officers 

 and crew, whose anxiety was intense. It was not till Aug. 23rd 

 that Capt. Guy killed his first Whale, and three others were 

 secured at short intervals during the next few weeks. On Oct. 

 1st the ' Nova Zembla ' bore up for home, and had a splendid run 

 of 14 days. 



