refuse to kill any more. Since the i)ractice of Walrus shooting 
has been introduced, not only has the number of animals killed 
annually been greatly increased, but the proportion of those lost, 
to those obtained, has likewise greatly increased. In 1879, in 
Eehring Strait, between thirty and forty thousand Walruses are 
said to have been destroyed, out of which number, only about 
eleven thousand were secured."” 
It will be seen that it is from the Walrus hunters themselves, as 
also from the sealers, that the cry “Hold ! Enough !” comes; but, 
although their magnanimity is beyond all praise, it is as unwise to 
subject these men to the temptation which at present exists, as it 
is unfair to expose them to the injury they are liable to sustain at 
the hands of others less scrupulous than themselves, should the 
trade be left quite open as at present. From justice therefore, as 
well as humanity, surely such a state of things calls for some restric- 
tive legislation, similar in nature to that already in force with regard 
to the Seals, ere it is too late to avert the evils which must of 
necessity follow, should the present wasteful destruction of the 
Walrus be long continued. 
P.S. — Since the above has been in type, by the arrival of the 
Dundee sealer ‘ Polynia,’ Capt. Walker, news has been received of 
the Greenland sealing fleet. The voyage, so far as reported by the 
‘Polynia,’ has been even less productive than that of 1882 ; the 
seven vessels spoken having taken only 1G,950 Seals (4000 of 
which fell to the lot of Captain David Graj^, of the ‘Eclipse’), 
or an average of 2421 against 3595 in 1882. The Norwegian fleet 
of fourteen vessels is reported to have secured 34,900 Seals, or an 
average of 2493. Captain Walker considers the state of the Seal 
pack such, that having regard to the large fleet present, there was 
very little chance of the catch paying expenses. 
With regard to the Newfoundland fishery, j\Ir. Bruce informs me 
that of twenty-five large vessels present six came off “ clean ; ” the 
remaining nineteen captured 283,720 Seals, principally young 
Harps, or an average of 14,932 ; the greatest number secured by a 
* See a report of the Whale.'! and Walrus fishing in Behring Strait, 
published in the ‘Field’ for March 27th, 1880 (p. 381). 
