BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 13 
British vessels “ about equals that taken by all the others together.” If 
by the “ Jan-Mayen Fishery” the author means the capture of young 
saddle seals at the Greenland west ice, this is certainly not correct ; 
the foreign vessels at present greatly outnumber the British, and the 
number of seals taken by them is proportionately larger. It will be 
seen that in the season of 1886 the number of British and foreign ves- 
sels present were respectively three of the former and twenty-one of 
the latter, and for many years past the disparity has been almost 
equally great. The Norwegians, who did not commence sealing till 
1845, now outnumber all the other nationalities. Previous to that time 
there were more Germans, Danes, and Dutch than there are Nor- 
wegians at present. The author is also incorrect in stating that the 
Scotch steamers are chiefly manned by Shetlanders. It is usual for 
the whalers to complete their crews at Lerwick, and last season the 
Eclipse added to her crew of 40 men 15 Shetlanders, bringing the 
number up to 55, and this, I believe, is about the usual proportion. 
Again, although it is stated that a close time has been established in 
the Jan-Mayen fishery, the writer goes on to say that “the vessels 
make the ice from the 15th to the 20th of March, and commence the 
chase in the destructive way already described.” The way “already 
described” happily refers to what has, since 1877, become a thing of 
the past. In that year the close time came into operation, and now, 
within an area included between the parallels of 67° and 75° north lati- 
tude, and between the meridians of 5° east and 17° west longitude from 
the meridian of Greenwich, not a seal is killed till April 3. That date is 
still believed by some to be too early, but this restriction has completely 
revolutionized the mode of sealing ; the mother seals are no longer 
killed without mercy when they come to suckle their young, and the 
latter left “to die in thousands of starvation.” As a matter of fact it 
is the young “white-coats” which are now so much valued. The Ger- 
man vessels made a business of sealing many years before the English 
took any decided part in it, the latter only picking up a few seals occa- 
sionally, but about the commencement of the present century seals 
begin to figure largely in the returns of the British ships. It was not, 
however, till the year 1840 that the port of Dundee first sent out ships 
to the Greenland sealing $ but this date by no means coincides with the 
commencement of the Jan-Mayen seal fishery, as stated by the writer 
in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
The Davis Strait whaling voyage was a very disastrous one. On 
April 5, during a most terrific gale, the Triune was forced upon a reef 
in latitude 66° north, where she remained frozen up till the 18th, when 
she was released, but in steaming through the ice-floe she received a 
very severe nip, which ultimately resulted in the crew being compelled 
to abandon her off Scott’s Island in latitude 71° north, on August 16. 
At the same time and place as the Triune, the J an Mayen was also 
