SHAL AND WHALE FISHERY, 1897. (fa 
‘Harlaw’ made her catch of 11,600 in the neighbourhood of 
Cape Ray. 
In a paper on “ Seals and the Seal Fishery,” printed in the 
‘Transactions’ of the Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc. vol. 11. 
p. 482, as well asin my Notes for 1884, I explained the nature 
of the practice known as “ panning” or “ binging,” and pointed 
out its wasteful character; this was perhaps never more fully 
exemplified than in the past season. The ‘Nimrod’ lost nine 
pans of Seals through the ice, under stress of weather, suddenly 
breaking up; one lot of 250 she recovered eighteen miles distant 
from the flag which marked their original position. The ‘ Aurora,’ 
as already mentioned, is said to have killed 60,000 Seals for the 
27,000 she brought home, having lost sixty-four flagged pans 
through the ice being ground up and turned over by the heavy 
swell. Surely some less wasteful method of securing a cargo 
could be devised; and in the interest of the future would it not 
be to the advantage of the sealers themselves that no more Seals 
should be killed than could at once be taken on board? This 
destructive practice of killing and panning all the young Seals 
within reach and leaving it to chance to recover them must 
before long lead to the most disastrous consequences, and it is 
not to be wondered at that the shore sealers, whose catch in the 
past season has been nil, should complain of this shocking waste. 
The large number of young Harps (see ‘ Aurora’ and ‘ Iceland’) 
taken so early in the season is unusual, and is probably owing to 
the disturbed state of the ice, the immense sheets on which they 
_ are whelped not usually breaking up so as to allow the Seals to 
be approached until the young ones are able to take to the water. 
106,678 of the total catch were young Harps, an unusually large 
proportion; 2188 were young Hoods; 11,133 were “ Bedlamers,”’ 
or young Seals of the second or third season which had not yet 
bred; and only 6629 old Seals of both species. 
Some of the old sealing captains are men of great intelligence 
and wide experience, and their interest leads them to appreciate 
minute differences in the appearance and habits of the Seals 
which to a casual observer would pass unnoticed. One of these 
veterans, in conversation with Mr. Thorburn, after alluding to 
the two ‘‘spots”’ of Hooded Seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
stated that the Seals in the western patch whelp about a week 
