66 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



to give a brief outline of the voyage of tne ' Neptune,' Capt. S. 

 Blandford, which is typical of all the rest. As already men- 

 tioned, on the 11th of March, some twenty-five miles N.E. of the 

 Funk Islands, the ' Neptune ' met with the first young Seals, but, 

 judging that the main body of the breeding pack was to be 

 found farther to the northward, Capt. Blandford, steamed thirty 

 or forty miles in that direction in search of them, but on the 

 13th bad weather came on, and the vessel barely escaped being 

 driven ashore on the Funks. From the 14th to the 18th the 

 hurricane continued, and during the detention many old Seals 

 were seen passing ; they were, as their custom is, south of their 

 young, and doubtless in search of food. Capt. Blandford esti- 

 mates that some seventy miles of practically barren ice drifted 

 past in a south-westerly direction before the whelping ice with 

 the " Whitecoats " upon it appeared. This drift caused the pans 

 bearing the young Seals to pass inside the Funks, although at 

 the time he met the small patch, on the 11th of March before 

 mentioned, the main body was seventy miles away in a northerly 

 direction. The storm which thus brought the young Seals so con- 

 veniently within easy reach having somewhat abated, on the 18th 

 March the ' Neptune,' with the ' Newfoundland ' in company, 

 headed in a westerly direction, and at once came up with them. 

 By Monday, the 20th, 16,000 Seals were panned ; the next day 

 15,000 more were added; and by Wednesday the total was made 

 up to 41,000. Then came the usual waste: "the elements were 

 unpropitious, and three pans were driven on the Funks and 

 ground to pieces, two more went over Brenton's Rock to destruc- 

 tion, while on Sunday three pans were smashed on the Cabots, 

 leaving only 32,000." As the bulk of the Seals were obtained by 

 the other vessels in about the same locality and under the same 

 conditions as to weather, it is probable that a similar loss of 

 panned Seals was also experienced by them; but Capt. Blandford 

 says that he was probably the greatest sufferer in this respect. I 

 have said that very few old Seals were killed, in proof of which 

 it may be mentioned that out of 17,286 Harps killed by the 

 1 Newfoundland,' only fifty-three were old ones. 



Four vessels — the ' Hope,' the ' Kite,' the ' Harlaw,' and the 

 ' Nimrod ' — went to the Gulf fishery. None of these was very 

 successful, with the exception of the * Hope,' which fell in with 



