497 
i\rarch, aftei- wliich they may caiiture Seals as soon as they can get 
amongst them. The fishery is from various causes extremely un- 
certain ; and although the Dundee fleet has done well in the past 
season, out of a total fleet of sixty Newfoundland and Dundee 
vessels present, twenty arc said to have returned empty. There 
can be no doubt tliat the Newfoundland Seal fishery will speedily 
he ruined, like the Greenland fishery, if the ju-esent wasteful mode 
of i)roceedings is long continued. iMany sl.ips, since steam has 
been introduced, if successful at first, run back to St. John’s, land 
their cargo, and go back again to hunt the old Seals, at which 
they are often very successful. The number of Seals taken at the 
NeAvfoundland llslicry by the St. John’s and Dundee vessels from 
1S70 to 1881, both inclusive, is .■{,.'1.32,157 ; the smallest take being 
in 1872 (Ul,03r)), the largest in 1879 (41 1,.*;00). The total numlier 
of seal-skins exported from Newfoundland and J.abrador for the 
year ending 31st July, 1881, was 447,903 ; but tliese numbers, as will 
be seen, large, as they are, fall far short of the actual destruction 
which has taken place during that period. 
d'he following account of the Newfoundland Seal fishery is 
condensed from i\[r. J. A. Allen’s ‘North American Pinnipeds,’* 
and is by him derived from a work on the ‘Seal and Herring 
Fisheries of Newfoundland,’ by Mich.ael Carroll of Ponavista^ 
published in 1873. * 
It was not till the year 17G3 that the Newfoundland Seal fishery 
was legularlj, prosccuteil in vessels especially equipped for the 
puiqjose. In 1787 the business h.ad alre.ady begun to assume im- 
portance : during that year 5000 Seals were taken. In 1807 thirty 
vessels were engaged in it. In 1834 the number was three hundred 
and seventy-five, besides “a considerable number” from Nova Scotia 
and the Magdalen Islands. In 18.57 the number of vessels exceeded 
three hundred and seventy, and 500,000 Seals were taken. The 
sealing at this date seems to have reached its maximum, so far as 
the numbers of vessels and men were concei-ned, and the number 
of \essels has since greatly decreased, although, owing to their 
superior size and the introduction of steam, the number of Seals 
* ‘History of North American Pinnipeds’ by J. A. Allen, U.S. Geolomcal 
and r.eograpliical Survey of tlie Territories. Miscellaneous Puhlicatton<= 
No. 12, Washington Goveriiinent Printing Office (I.SSO), pp. 4ft7_49<) 
