Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/104

72 earlier than those in the eastern patch; also that the females in the former are much larger than in the latter, and that the reverse is the case with regard to the males. The western patch is found in the neighbourhood of St. Paul's Island, and the other considerably to the eastward. He also confirms the statement that there are two distinct patches of Harp Seals, one whelping inside St. Paul's Island (see Notes for 1896, Zool. 1897, p. 57), and that a similar disparity in weight exists as is observed in the case of the Hoods, the old Saddlers in the one patch exceeding in weight those in the other by an average of about 25 lb. Referring to a summer which he once spent on the island of Anticosti, he mentioned having met there with a large dark-coloured Seal, one of which he shot, "larger than a Hooded Seal, and with a head like a horse or cow," and which, he said, frequents that island during the summer.

None of the Dundee vessels were present at the Greenland young sealing, and the captures in Newfoundland by the 'Esquimaux' (1903) and 'Terra Nova' (3501) represent all the Seals taken by the Scotch vessels, with the exception of a few old Seals, some 400 in all, taken in Greenland by the 'Active' and 'Polar Star.' The 'Alert' brought home from the settlement in Cumberland Gulf, with other produce, 4700 Seal skins and seventy tons of Seal and Whale oil. I do not receive statistics of the Norwegian sealing in the Greenland Seas, but Prof. Collett has kindly informed me that in 1893 about 100,000 were killed, some 20,000 of which were old Seals, and the rest young Harps and Hooded Seals; in 1894 the number was not quite 100,000, 9000 old and the rest young and Hooded; in 1895 rather less than 80,000, of which 9000 were old; and in 1896 between 90,000 and 100,000, 11,000 of which were old Seals. This branch of the sealing trade has quite reverted to the Scandinavians; the same may be said of the Bottle-nose fishery, no Scotch vessels having taken part in it for the last few years. It seems, however, to be successfully prosecuted by the Norwegians, and Prof. Collett tells me that in 1893 they killed 2701; in 1894, 2905; in 1895, 2872; and in 1896, 3301. The figures for 1897 are not yet available.

The Greenland whaling, for reasons which will be fully explained further on, was a complete failure; only one Whale was captured, and one other seen. The condition of the ice in