86 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



unvisited by one or more members of this family. In 1811, 

 David Gray the elder commanded the ' Perseverance ' in the 

 Greenland Fishery, making his last voyage in 1827. In 1825 he 

 left his ship, the ' Active,' frozen up in Davis Straits, and in the 

 next season brought her safely home, a feat I have never heard 

 of being repeated. In 1836 his son, John Gray, who had 

 previously sailed from Kirkcaldy, took command of the ' Eclipse,' 

 in which he made twenty voyages, dying in 1856. His sons, 

 David, John, and Alexander, all commanded whalers. John died 

 in 1892 ; Alexander is now in the Hudson's Bay service ; and 

 David, who made his first voyage as Commander in the ' North 

 of Scotland' in 1849, till 1892 had spent every summer in the 

 arctic seas, having captured 197 whales and 168,956 seals. 

 Capt. Gray's eldest son accompanied his father several years, but 

 has now forsaken the sea for the medical profession, and with the 

 last Gray I fear this once thriving industry, which his family has 

 done so much to promote, so far as his native port of Peterhead is 

 concerned, has virtually come to an end. With the exception of 

 Dr. Scoresby, no whaling captain has brought so much intelligence 

 to bear upon his profession as Capt. David Gray. Science is in- 

 debted to him for many facts elucidating the habits and structure 

 of the Eight Whale and the Hyperoodon, and humanity owes him 

 a deep debt of gratitude for his successful efforts in establishing 

 a close time for seals, by which he was mainly instrumental in 

 abolishing, I trust for ever, the most cruel features of this occu- 

 pation ; and his son, Dr. Robert Gray, has closely studied the 

 habits and anatomy of the animals which he has met with in the 

 arctic seas, and I hope will some day make a good use of the 

 results of his observations. 



The Greenland vessels were the ' Active,' which captured one 

 whale ; the * Balaena,' two small whales ; the * Diana,' clean, with 

 the exception of 148 seals; the ■ Polar Star,' with only 449 seals ' 

 and the ' Chieftain,' which was nipped in the ice and abandoned 

 on the 14th July. The 4 Eclipse ' was absent from the whale 

 fishery. The season is described as very bad, strong N.E. gales 

 prevailed, great quantities of ice, and continuous fogs ; very few 

 whales were seen. The Captain of the ' Diana ' says ; — " The 

 voyage may be summed up by saying that when fish were seen 

 the ice and weather were unfavourable, and when the conditions 

 were suitable no whales could be sighted." Happily, the crew 



