102 THK ZOOLOGIST. 



the season of 1890. These, too, were very equally distributed, 

 eleven vessels having more than 15,000 each, viz., the ' Terra 

 Nova,' 35,239; 'Neptune,' 33,875; 'Hector,' 31,379; 'Wolf,' 

 30,337; 'Greenland,' 25,907; 'Vanguard,' 22,306; 'Falcon,' 

 20,855 ; ' Esquimaux,' 20,563 ; ' Aurora,' 16,723 ; ' Polynia,' 

 16.535 ; and the ' Leopard,' 15,815. The remaining eight vessels 

 averaged 9245 Seals each, and only three of these were poorly 

 fished. The produce also sold very fairly, the oil producing £24 

 per ton, and the skins averaging about 5s. 3d. each. The 

 passage out to St. John's is described as a very bad one, and the 

 unfortunate ' Polynia ' (to be again alluded to) seems to have had 

 a particularly rough time of it. Good weather was experienced 

 at first, but, about a week after leaving Dundee, Capt. Guy was 

 steaming dead slow in a gale from the W.S.W., accompanied by a 

 heavy head sea, and his ship labouring very much, when, just as 

 he was changing the watch and while a large number of men were 

 on deck, the vessel shipped a terrific sea and one of the men was 

 killed almost instantaneously, ten others being more or less 

 seriously injured. Capt. Guy is of opinion that the sea which 

 struck the ' Polynia ' must have been a tidal wave. The weather 

 then moderated, and all the injured men did well, and were ready 

 for work when the vessel reached the ice. 



The young Sealing in Greenland again proved an absolute 

 failure, owing to the severe frost which prevailed in the spring, 

 and the total number brought in from both the old and young 

 Sealing, by five Scotch vessels, was only 1560 against 6603 in the 

 previous year. The Norwegians, I am informed, killed some 

 20,000 or 30,000 young Seals. 



The total result of the Newfoundland and Greenland old 

 and young Sealing, so far as the nine Scotch vessels were concerned, 

 was 90,590 Seals (of these 89,030 were from Newfoundland, and 

 were included in the total already given for that fishery), yielding 

 986 tons of oil (as against 54,686 Seals and 647 tons of oil in 

 the previous season) : these, at <£24 per ton for oil, and say 5s. 3d. 

 per skin, would probably realise about £47,444, against a similar 

 estimate of £29,993 in the season of 1890. This excellent result, 

 it will be observed, is due to the success of the Newfoundland 

 voyage. 



The Dundee fleet was reduced to nine this season by the 

 withdrawal of the ' Earl of Mar and Kellie,' and of tliese the 



