362 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The result, although not meeting with universal approval, and, 

 as will be seen, occurring under rather unfortunate and peculiar 

 circumstances, cannot be regarded otherwise than with satisfaction 

 in one respect, for the yield in the past season shows an increase 

 in the net weight of the produce of a like number of Seals com- 

 pared with that of the season of 1901 of no less than 779 tons. 

 No objection is made to the delay in the date of killing, but it is 

 contended by some experienced sealers that the vessels should be 

 allowed to depart on March 10th, as formerly, thus affording a 

 longer time to search for the Seals, and enabling the slower 

 vessels to come up before the patch, when found, is wiped out. 

 It is to be feared, however, that the presence of the waiting 

 vessels in the immediate neighbourhood of the Seals would have 

 a very disturbing effect, as was the case in the Greenland fishery, 

 not to mention the temptation it would offer to a solitary vessel 

 to evade the statutory regulation. 



The tendency of late has been for the steamers to select the 

 more northerly ports as their points of departure ; sixteen of the 

 vessels in the past season left Greenspond, and only two sailed 

 from St. Johns, the two Gulf sealers, as usual, making 

 Channel (Port-aux-Basques) their starting-place. The practice 

 has been to steer N.E., hoping to meet the whelping ice in its 

 southward drift. This in the past, as on many other occasions,* 

 has had an unfortunate result, for, owing to the prevalence of 

 N.W. winds, the pack was driven rapidly southward and seaward, 

 so that the Seals were really much farther south than usual ; in 

 addition to which many of the vessels got jammed in the ice 

 until too late to participate in the killing, thus accounting for 

 the poorness of the return. The main pack was found about 

 130 miles E.S.E. of Cape Freels. 



A fact worthy of note is reported by the ' Diana.' On March 

 29th she came upon a patch of Seals estimated at 600,000 ; the 

 ice, however, was so closely packed that it was impossible to get 

 near them. Eventually the ice opened after a storm of wind, 

 but only a few were obtained, the young Seals having taken to 

 the water. These Seals, it is said, were different in many 

 respects from the ordinary Harps, " the flippers being longer 

 and broader," and old sealers, who are very keen to note even 

 ::: See notes for 1897, pp. 69, 70. 



