THE SEAL AND WHALE FISHERY OF 1892. 83 



should be stopped, and no old seals should be killed after the 

 15th of April. If not, it is the fishermen of the island, and their 

 children after them, who will have to suffer the loss resulting 

 from the present reckless custom.'" The 'Esquimaux' killed 

 16,000 seals in her second trip, having already killed 17,968. 



On the whole, the Greenland young sealing was fairly suc- 

 cessful, but the good luck fell almost entirely to the Norwegian 

 vessels, which were early in the field and found the seals before 

 the close-time came to an end ; they were thus ready to commence 

 as soon as the law permitted, and secured about 60,000 seals, 

 or double the catch in Greenland for some years past ; but frost 

 set in, and the Scotch vessels were unable to reach the breeding 

 packs, except the ' Balaena,' which, after lying beset for a week, 

 was liberated on the 3rd of April, and reaching the pack the 

 same day, managed to secure some 2100 young and old seals, 

 although they had a long way to travel over the ice for them. 

 Only 3478 seals were brought home from Greenland by the 

 Scotch vessels, and 8618 were collected by the 'Alert' from the 

 Cumberland Gulf stations. The severe frosts which have prevailed 

 in the past few springs have been beneficial to the breeding seals, 

 enabling an unusual proportion of the young ones to escape and 

 thus strengthen the breeding pack. 



Eleven Scotch vessels took part in last season's sealing, and 

 captured in Newfoundland and Greenland 74,449 young and old 

 seals (including 8618 from Cumberland Gulf) ; of these 62,353 

 were from Newfoundland, the bulk of which were included in 

 the total for that division of the fishery already given. These 

 produced 827 tons of oil (as against 90,590 seals and 986 tons of 

 oil in the previous season), which at £20 per ton for oil and, say, 

 5s. per skin, represent a sum of £35,152, as against an estimate 

 of £47,444 in 1891. It will be observed that the success of the 

 venture is again due to the Newfoundland voyage. 



The Davis Straits whaling was only a partial success ; of the 

 four Dundee vessels present, the ' Aurora' captured two fair-sized 

 whales, yielding 20 J cwt. of bone; the 'Esquimaux' one very small 

 whale of ljcwt. of bone ; the 'Terra Nova' one good whale of 15 

 cwt. of bone; and the 'Nova Zembla' missed the black fish, and 

 had to be content with 318 White Whales, 14 Narwhals, 3 Walrus, 

 and 2 bears, whilst the best-fished vessel of all, the ' Maud,' which 

 was instrumental in saving the crew of the ' Polynia' in Admiralty 



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