SEAL AND WHALE FISHERY, 1896. 57 



shore than the Hooded Seals, and Capt. Adams, of the ' Esqui- 

 maux,' whose gunners made excellent practice, got something 

 like 7600 old Harps and "Bedlamers" off Bonavista Bay. 



Mr. Thorburn attributes the comparative failure of the fishery 

 to the combined influence, first, of the gale on March 5th and 6th, 

 which smashed much of the whelping ice (then very thin), drowning 

 many young Seals and driving the heavy ice towards the shore in 

 a compact body ; and secondly, to the westerly winds accompanied 

 by severe frost, which prevailed from March 10th to the end of that 

 month, and forced the solid ice again off the shore, forming a 

 barrier through which many of the steamers were unable to make 

 headway until too late in the season for them to do much good. 



Three vessels, the 'Iceland,' 'Nimrod,' and the ' Harlaw,' 

 went to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but did not do very well, the 

 bulk of the northern patch of Harp Seals in that locality having, 

 it is presumed, been driven through the Strait towards Belle Isle 

 by the strong westerly winds; what young Harps were got by the 

 steamers are believed to have been taken from the southern patch, 

 which is generally found inside St. Paul's and other islands in 

 that neighbourhood, and as the large sheets of ice on which the 

 young are whelped do not there, as a rule, break up until late in 

 the season, it frequently happens that they cannot be got at. (See 

 remarks on this subject in last season's notes, p. 42.) 



Twenty-two steamers in all went to the Newfoundland sealing 

 this season, but two of them were wrecked, leaving the number 

 twenty, as last year. Of these the most successful was the 

 ' Neptune,' which took 22,946 Seals ; followed in succession by the 

 'Greenland,' with 20,197; the ' Labrador,' 16,973 ; 'Newfound- 

 land,' 15,900 ; 'Walrus,' 13,038; 'Vanguard,' 12,593; and the 

 'Iceland,' 11,666; the remaining thirteen vessels were all under 

 10,000, the total catch being 187,516 Seals (as compared with 

 270,058 in the previous season), and the average of the twenty 

 vessels, 9375. In addition to these some 22,000 Seals were taken 

 by the schooners. No second trips were made. The estimated 

 value of the produce landed from the steamers was £55,362 

 (compared with £74,712 in the previous season, not £77,824 as 

 incorrectly stated). 



The result of the fishery, notwithstanding a slight increase in 

 the value of the produce, thus shows a deficiency of £19,350. The 



