i 
492 
to a close, and the progeny of tlic imineuse number of Seals 
then swimming about in Greenland waters would number com- 
paratively few. In 1877 this prediction was so far verified, that the 
Dundee vessels had deserted the Greenland seas for Newfoundland ; 
Captain Adams having “ for some years been of opinion that 
that ground [the Greenland] was practically used up, and hence his 
visit to Newfoundland.” 
In the meantime both the Norwegian and Scotch sealers had 
been anxiously striving to secure some enactment to prevent the 
total destruction of the Seals, and consequent extinction of an 
important branch of commerce. In 1871, Captain Jack ob Llelsom 
of Tdnsberg, in an article in Petermann’s ‘ Geographische Mitt- 
heilungen,’ traced the great decrease in tlie number of Seals to the 
introduction of steam, and the too early arrival of the vessels at the 
sealing grounds, and suggested a “ close-time ” as a remedy. In 
1874, Captain David Gray, the veteran Peterhead whaler, in a 
letter to ‘Land and Water’* (before quoted), pointed out the 
^ horrors of the sealing trade as at that time prosecuted, and pleaded 
for speedy legislation with regard to a close-time. In September, 
1874 , a meeting of the managers and owners of the Seal and Whale 
fishing vessels belonging to the port of Peterhead passed a 
resolution, memorializing the Board of Trade to prevent by legis- 
lative enactment, and if, necessary, by international agreement, the 
prosecution of the Greenland Seal fishery at a date earlier than the 
Gth of April. A letter was also printed in ‘Land and AVater’ f 
in 1875, from Mr. Looenskiold, embodying the views of the ship- 
owners of Southern Norway with regard to a “ close-time,” and 
giving some startling statistics with regard to the decline of the 
fishery as carried on from that country. 
Her Majesty’s minister at Stockholm having also brought tlio 
importance of the matter before the Home Government, the Board 
of Trade at length held an inquiry at Dundee, on the 1st of 
December, 1874, at which the principal owners and commanders 
of AVhale and Seal fishing vessels, of the ports of Dundee and 
* ‘ Land and Water,’ May 9th, 1874. 
+ ‘Land and Water,’ Aug. 2Stli, 1875 (p. 160). 
