NOTES ON THE SEAL AND WHALE FISHERY. 43 



ice near Groais Island, in the same locality as the ' Terra Nova,' 

 and remained beset till the 6th of April, when, after much sawing 

 and blasting of the ice, she got free, only to be again caught in 

 the floe off Partridge Point (White Bay), remaining fast till the 

 end of the month ; finally, after sundry other adventures, arriving 

 safely at St. John's on the 5th of May with 19,605 Seals. 



The Gulf sealing was practically a failure. Four vessels, 

 namely, the ' Harlaw,' ' Panther,' ' Kite,' and ' Hope,' took part 

 in this section of the voyage ; the ' Harlaw ' and the ' Panther ' 

 only securing 400 and 4855 Seals respectively ; the ' Kite ' got 

 jammed in the ice off Prince Edward's Island, and at one time 

 was in a situation of great peril, but eventually reached Channel 

 in safety on the 27th April with a cargo of 8216 Seals; of these 

 900 were old Harps and 400 old Hoods, which yielded a weight 

 of fat and pelts about equal to 10,000 young Harps. From the 

 13th March to the 23rd she is reported to have killed twice the 

 number of Seals she could possibly carry, but frightful weather 

 setting in, she only succeeded in getting 7000 young Harps on 

 board. The remaining vessel, the ' Hope,' was unfortunately 

 driven on shore on Byron Island, one of the Magdalen group, 

 and became a total wreck, with 5000 Seals on board. Happily 

 her crew of 194 men landed safely on the island, whence they 

 were subsequently rescued by the ' Greenland,' which departed 

 from St. John's for that purpose. The ' Hope ' was rather a 

 notable vessel. In 1873 she sailed from Peterhead on her first 

 whaling voyage, commanded by Capt. John Gray, a member of a 

 family celebrated for generations as successful whalers, and was 

 employed in 1882 in the rescue of the crew of Mr. Leigh Smith's 

 yacht, the ' Eira,' which foundered off Cape Flora, Franz Josef 

 Land, in the previous year ; in 1892 she passed into the owner- 

 ship of Messrs. Baine Johnson and Co., and has been since that 

 time employed in the Newfoundland sealing. 



In addition to the young Harps got in the Gulf fishery being, 

 like those off the east coast, smaller than usual, the failure of the 

 fishery in this locality was also due to the heavy gale early in 

 April which proved destructive to the ' Hope,' broke up the 

 whelping ice, and either swept the young Seals into the sea, or 

 separated them from their parents, so dispersing the pack that 

 the steamers could not come near them in any quantity* Any 



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