130 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



a general average of 17,486 in the season of 1892. The 'Eagle,' 

 of St. Johns, was subsequently lost in Lancaster Sound, where 

 on the 27th July, she was nipped in the ice, and her crew, after 

 bravely sticking to their rudderless and sinking ship, made 

 Dexterity Bay on the 1st Sept., where they and the cargo were 

 taken on board the * Aurora' and the 'Esquimaux,' and the 

 damaged ship was then deserted. She had on board at the time 

 the produce of two whales and a " sucker," amounting to about 

 a ton of bone and twenty-five tons of oil, in addition to seals, 

 walruses, &c* 



The Greenland and Davis Straits sealing in the past season 

 was very unimportant, and I am told that not more than 40,000 

 seals in all were killed, only 325 falling to the share of the Scotch 

 vessels ; of these 235 were brought home by the ' Perseverance,' 

 which had wintered in Kepulse Bay, and the ' Eclipse ' and 

 ' Nova Zembla,' from Davis Straits, killed forty-two and forty- 

 eight respectively ; four of the vessels were away at the Antarctic 

 fishing, to which I shall refer further on. The total result, 

 therefore, of the Northern Seal Fishery in which six Scotch 

 vessels took part, was only 17,256 old and young seals, producing 

 204 tons of oil, representing at £19 per ton £3876, and the skins 

 at an average, say, of 7s. each, a further sum of £6040, a total of 

 £9915, as compared with a like valuation of £35,152 in the 

 previous season. 



Turning to the Davis Straits whale fishery, the result com- 

 mercially is much more satisfactory. There were four Dundee 

 vessels present, all of which secured fair cargoes, the 'Aurora' 

 taking the lead with nine whales and two suckers; the 'Eclipse' 

 following with eight all very fair fish, and the 'Esquimaux' and 

 'Nova Zembla' with four each. 



The weather was very bad in the early part of the season, and 

 the 'Eclipse' was the only successful vessel at the east fishery 

 ground, killing two whales on the 13th and 16th of May, but she 

 was detained in Melville Bay by heavy ice and stormy weather 

 until early in July. Immediately upon reaching the west side of 

 the Strait she fell in with whales, and after losing one on the 



* In addition to those already mentioned, 21,500 seals were brought 

 into St. Johns by local sailing vessels which do not come within our 

 province. 



