28 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The American whalers have, I am informed, captured forty- 

 nine Whales in the past season. 



The whaling-grounds in the Greenland Seas have been de- 

 serted by our seamen, and, as the Norwegian sealers do not pene- 

 trate so far north, nothing is at present known as to the state of 

 the ice in the latitudes formerly frequented by the whalers ; but 

 the ' Frithjof,' which took out coal for the relief of the "America " 

 North Polar Expedition, twice failed in her attempts to reach 

 Franz Josef Land. 



The Finwhale fishery, which has been for some years success- 

 fully prosecuted by the Norwegians off the Finmarken coast, has 

 recently been much extended. The first to follow their example 

 was the Newfoundland Cabot Whale-fishing Company, to which 

 I have more than once referred ; stations were then established 

 in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and, in 1903, on the mainland of 

 Shetland, where they were from the first successful.* In the 

 season of 1903 only two stations were worked there, and 126 

 Whales killed ; in 1904 two other stations were opened, and 412 

 Whales killed. An unlooked-for event was the capture of six or 

 seven Sperm Whales in 1903, and of a large bull Sperm on 

 June 24th, 1904. 



The ' Shetland News ' of March 12th, 1904, quoting from the 

 ' Newfoundland Trade Eeview,' describes the success of this 

 fishery from our oldest colony as phenomenal, and states that 

 " whaling's stock is now considered the best investment in the 

 country. Every fifty-mile coastal area (as provided by the law) 

 is now taken up in Newfoundland, and there are also many 

 areas taken up in Labrador. There are now ten whaling stations 

 in operation, and there will be from three to five more next year 

 [1904]. Near most of these there is stationed a Eeis-Mullet 

 reducing plant, in which, by proper scientific treatment, every 

 particle of the fish that does not go into oil is reduced to some 

 paying product." 



The Finwhales of various species have hitherto been met 

 with in surprising abundance, but how long the serious strain 

 on their numbers, although spread over so extended a range, can 

 be sustained it is impossible to say. The demand for this kind 



* Cf. Whale-fishing from Scotland, ' Annals of Scottish Nat. Hist.' 

 April, 1904, pp. 77- 90. 



