72 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
earlier than those in the eastern patch ; also that the females in 
the former are much larger than in the latter, and that the 
reverse is the case with regard to the males. The western patch 
is found in the neighbourhood of St. Paul’s Island, and the other 
considerably to the eastward. He also confirms the statement 
that there are two distinct patches of Harp Seals, one whelping 
inside St. Paul’s Island (see Notes for 1896, Zool. 1897, p. 57), 
and that a similar disparity in weight exists as is observed in the 
case of the Hoods, the old Saddlers in the one patch exceeding 
in weight those in the other by an average of about 25lb. Re- 
ferring to a summer which he once spent on the island of Anti- 
costi, he mentioned having met there with a large dark-coloured 
Seal, one of which he shot, “larger than a Hooded Seal, and 
with a head like a horse or cow,” and which, he said, frequents 
that island during the summer. 
None of the Dundee vessels were present at the Erie 
land young sealing, and the captures in Newfoundland by the 
‘Esquimaux’ (1903) and ‘ Terra Nova’ (3501) represent all the 
Seals taken by the Scotch vessels, with the exception of a few old 
Seals, some 400 in all, taken in Greenland by the ‘ Active’ and 
‘Polar Star.” The ‘ Alert’ brought home from the settlement in 
Cumberland Gulf, with other produce, 4700 Seal skins and seventy 
tons of Seal and Whale oil. I donot receive statistics of the Nor- 
wegian sealing in the Greenland Seas, but Prof. Collett has kindly 
informed me that in 1898 about 100,000 were killed, some 20,000 
of which were old Seals, and the rest young Harps and Hooded 
Seals ; in 1894 the number was not quite 100,000, 9000 old and the 
rest young and Hooded; in 1895 rather less than 80,000, of which 
9000 were old; and in 1896 between 90,000 and 100,000, 11,000 
of which were old Seals. This branch of the sealing trade has 
quite reverted to the Scandinavians; the same may be said of the 
Bottle-nose fishery, no Scotch vessels having taken part in it for 
the last few years. It seems, however, to be successfully prose- 
cuted by the Norwegians, and Prof. Collett tells me that in 1893 
they killed 2701; in 1894, 2905; in 1895, 2872; and in 1896, 
3301. The figures for 1897 are not yet available. 
The Greenland whaling, for reasons which will be fully 
explained further on, was a complete failure; only one Whale 
was captured, and one other seen. The condition of the ice in 
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