Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/103

Rh 'Harlaw' made her catch of 11,600 in the neighbourhood of Cape Ray.

In a paper on "Seals and the Seal Fishery," printed in the 'Transactions' of the Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc. vol. iii. p. 482, as well as in my Notes for 1884, I explained the nature of the practice known as "panning" or "binging," and pointed out its wasteful character; this was perhaps never more fully exemplified than in the past season. The 'Nimrod' lost nine pans of Seals through the ice, under stress of weather, suddenly breaking up; one lot of 250 she recovered eighteen miles distant from the flag which marked their original position. The 'Aurora,' as already mentioned, is said to have killed 60,000 Seals for the 27,000 she brought home, having lost sixty-four flagged pans through the ice being ground up and turned over by the heavy swell. Surely some less wasteful method of securing a cargo could be devised; and in the interest of the future would it not be to the advantage of the sealers themselves that no more Seals should be killed than could at once be taken on board? This destructive practice of killing and panning all the young Seals within reach and leaving it to chance to recover them must before long lead to the most disastrous consequences, and it is not to be wondered at that the shore sealers, whose catch in the past season has been nil, should complain of this shocking waste. The large number of young Harps (see 'Aurora' and 'Iceland') taken so early in the season is unusual, and is probably owing to the disturbed state of the ice, the immense sheets on which they are whelped not usually breaking up so as to allow the Seals to be approached until the young ones are able to take to the water. 106,678 of the total catch were young Harps, an unusually large proportion; 2188 were young Hoods; 11,133 were "Bedlamers," or young Seals of the second or third season which had not yet bred; and only 6629 old Seals of both species.

Some of the old sealing captains are men of great intelligence and wide experience, and their interest leads them to appreciate minute differences in the appearance and habits of the Seals which to a casual observer would pass unnoticed. One of these veterans, in conversation with Mr. Thorburn, after alluding to the two "spots" of Hooded Seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, stated that the Seals in the western patch whelp about a week