Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/85

Rh experience the same adverse weather. After crossing Melville Bay, on June 26th, one of the few days on which the vessel was not enshrouded in fog from morning till night, she saw three Whales, one of which was captured. About this time a fearful gale was experienced from the N.E., lasting four or five days which left the ice in a hopeless condition. Under the circumstances Capt. Milne turned his attention to small game and secured, towards making up a cargo, five Narwhals, twenty-one Walruses, thirty-seven Bears, seventy-four Seals, twenty Reindeer, and three Wolves.

The 'Esquimaux' saw several Whales, but the heavy ice baffled all attempts at their capture, and the only result of her voyage was eighty Seals, twenty-one Walruses, twelve Bears, and two Narwhals.

The 'Nova Zembla' was more successful, securing two small Whales. From the station in Cumberland Gulf the brig 'Alert' brings the produce of three good Whales and 3890 Seals, consisting of 20 tons of seal and 45 tons of whale oil, and 45 cwt. of bone.

The total produce of the Whale Fishery in the past season was 12 Right and 9 White Whales, also 43 Walruses; these yielded 149 tons of oil and 135¼ cwt. of bone. The oil may be valued at £18 per ton, or £2682; and the bone at £2000 per ton, or £13,525; the total being about £16,207, compared with £23,958 in the previous season.

I see it announced in the Newfoundland papers that a company is being formed at St. John's to hunt the Fin Whales in the adjacent seas from that colony, in the same way as has been so successfully practised by the Norwegians off the Finmarken coast.

I cannot close these notes without a passing tribute to the memory of my old friend Capt. David Gray, of Peterhead, of whose career I gave some particulars in my notes for 1892. After retiring from the sea, Capt. Gray was tempted to make one voyage more, and commanded the 'Windward' in 1893, the last voyage she made before her purchase for the use of the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition. From that time he suffered greatly, bearing with characteristic bravery a painful complication of troubles arising from gout, and finally passed away at his