364 THE ZOOLOGIST, 



patch of Hoods, and killing began : but it was terrific work. The 

 Seals, being far from the ship, had to be dragged for miles over 

 the ice, the men making but one or two trips a day. This was 

 off the Magdalenes. Capt. W. Batlett next tried to enter the 

 Gulf, but about ten miles off St. Pauls met with a solid barrier 

 of ice, and in attempting to force a passage the sheathing was 

 torn off his vessel, and she "leaked furiously," and to such an 

 extent that he had to bear up for home, the pumps going all the 

 time. The 'Viking's' 1502 old Hoods and 778 young ones are 

 said to be of enormous size, and weighed 146 tons 15 cwt. net, 

 valued at 8972 dols., the hard-earned shares of the crew of 189 

 men being 15.82 dols. each. 



The present is the twenty-fifth of these annual " Notes," and 

 owing to various circumstances it is more than probable that it 

 will be the last. Perhaps, therefore, I may be pardoned if I 

 append a few statistics as to the results of the past quarter of a 

 century's operations. 



Formerly the sealing was prosecuted by means of nets set in 

 the creeks and on the shore ; then followed shooting from boats, 

 which in their turn were supplanted by small sailing vessels of 

 from 40 to 100 tons ; these rapidly increased in number, till in 

 1857 Mr. Chafe informs us there were 400 of these vessels. The 

 Seals must at that time have been very numerous, for in the 

 year 1858 the large number of 507,624 were killed ; but the 

 year 1830 had produced a still larger number, 686,836 having 

 figured in the returns, which, however, fluctuated then as now 

 very considerably. In 1863 steam was introduced, and the 

 schooners rapidly disappeared, till at present very few take 

 part in the fishery ; and it must be clearly understood that 

 what follows will only refer to the results obtained by the 

 steam fleet. 



It was in the year 1876 that the ' Arctic,' a Dundee vessel, 

 first represented the Scots in the Newfoundland sealing, their 

 ships going north to the whaling at the conclusion of the voyage. 

 In 1881 there were six of these vessels present, one of which, the 

 ' Resolute,' killed 35,025 Seals in her first trip, and 5954, i. e., 

 40,979 in all (she afterwards killed three Whales in Davis Strait). 

 Twenty-two vessels took part in the fishery of that year, seventeen 



