132 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



whales in the Straits, the occurrence of suckers in the Greenland 

 Seas being extremely rare. 



Our friend Capt. David Gray could not content himself at 

 home, and the ' Eclipse,' of whose success I have already spoken, 

 having been disposed of, he took command of the * Windward,' 

 which was the only Scottish vessel in the Greenland Seas. The 

 only whales seen by Capt. Gray were met with on May 6th, in 

 lat. 78*46° N., 22' East; of two seen at the same time one was 

 killed, which yielded 19 tons of oil, and 19 cwt. of bone; the 

 other escaped. The ice was found to be too far to the westward, 

 so as to leave no cover on the Spitsbergen feeding banks, and 

 after a fruitless search, he left for the south fishing-ground early 

 in June, where no better success awaited him ; finally, at the end 

 of July, he made for home, weary and disappointed. The absence 

 of the whales from the Greenland Seas in the past season is very 

 remarkable, and a great contrast to the abundance which showed 

 themselves in Davis Straits. 



The total produce of the whale fishery was 33 Whales, 

 32 White Wales, and 75 Walrus ; these yielded 389 tons of oil 

 and 20 tons 16 cwt. of bone; the oil may be valued at £21 per 

 ton, but as no bone has yet come into the British market the 

 price is very uncertain ; it may be taken, however, at about 

 £1600 per ton, the price at which it is now selling in America 

 (a very serious reduction upon the previous season), and at that 

 price the total produce of bone and oil would represent a sum of 

 £41,449, against a like valuation of £19,666 in the previous 

 season. 



The Dundee expedition to the Antarctic Seas, to which 

 I referred in my last report, has proved commercially a great 

 disappointment, and, so far as I can learn, of very little scientific 

 importance. A large number of seals were killed, but, owing to 

 the low price of produce, not sufficient to pay the expenses of the 

 voyage, and no species of Right Whale was met with. The 

 general professional opinion appears to be that the vessels started 

 too late, and they were still further delayed by heavy weather 

 before getting fairly on the voyage* The experiment, so far as 

 Dundee is concerned, will not be repeated at present, but I under- 

 stand that the Norwegian whaler 'Jason' has made a second trip 

 southward, and probably, owing to the more economical manage- 

 ment of these vessels, may find it to her advantage. The southern 



