Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/84

58 'Hope' had the misfortune to break her shaft, which spoiled her fishing, and the 'Vanguard' and 'Ranger' were badly nipped by the ice; the 'Wolf' was crushed by rafting ice on March 12th eight miles N.N.W. of Fogs Head; and the 'Windsor Lake' met with a similar fate on March 27th; both vessels became total wrecks, but their crews were saved.

None of the Dundee vessels went to the Greenland sealing, as the market value of produce was not sufficiently tempting; there were about seventeen Norwegian steamers out, and they are said to have done very well, but I have no statistics; they nearly all took part in the Bottle-nose fishery also, which proved very successful.

The Whale fishery has now become restricted to the port of Dundee, and the only representative of Peterhead in the Arctic Seas was the brig 'Alert,' which brought home a cargo of produce from the Cumberland Gulf station (this will be referred to further on); but Dundee sent out eight vessels, five of which—the 'Active', 'Balæna,' 'Diana,' 'Polar Star,' and 'Terra Nova'—went to Greenland; the 'Balæna' returned clean, and the 'Diana,' which broke her shaft on May 28th, only obtained thirty-nine Bears and a few Seals; the 'Eclipse,' 'Esquimaux,' and 'Nova Zembla' went to Davis Strait.

The state of the ice in the Greenland Seas was found to be very unfavourable; it was exceedingly heavy; the weather proved mild and open, accompanied by almost incessant fog, but otherwise it was pleasant. The 'Arctic' killed her first Whale on May 13th, two others in the middle of June, and a fourth in July. The 'Polar Star' and the 'Terra Nova' had one Whale each, and several others were seen by the vessels, but could not be approached.

In Davis Strait the weather is described as the most unfavourable ever experienced by those who took part in the fishery; at the very outset of the voyage strong north-easterly gales prevailed, which blew for several weeks without ceasing, and the record of the voyage is a succession of gales and fogs. The 'Eclipse' encountered the ice very early, off Cape Desolation; and it was not until May 4th that she reached Disco, meeting with no Whales on the east side. Towards the end of May the steamer headed for the middle ice fishing-ground, where she continued to