Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/130

106 till the 14th; and, although found thus early, they were well matured. The patch lay E. and W. along the edges of the icesheets, not in the middle of the pans, as is usually the case; and the 'Algerine' reports that when she came up to the main body of the young Harps the noise was so great that orders given on board the ship were heard with difficulty; on the 14th her own crew killed 12,000. The 'Walrus' was equally fortunate in finding the Seals, but in the gale which followed she lost thirty-seven pans, containing some 5000 Seals. The 'Newfoundland' is also said to have lost over 3000 in the same way; and who can tell how many more were thus unprofitably sacrificed? The 'Terra Nova' was the only vessel which secured any appreciable number of Hooded Seals later in the season.

Of the four vessels which went to the Gulf fishery, the 'Panther' ran down the Newfoundland shore in loose ice with the hope of reaching the eastern Harps which are supposed to whelp near Cape Whittle, on the Canadian shore; but, finding the winds unfavourable and the ice getting tighter, ran back again, and was fortunate in finding the Hoods seventy miles E.N.E. of the Bird Rocks, and secured nearly 6000 old and young of these large Seals. The 'Nimrod' and 'Hope' found the young Harp Seals on the 22nd of March off Byron Island, but the 'Kite' and the 'Harlaw,' which went in search of the western Harps, did very badly.

With regard to the Gulf fishery, Mr. Thorburn was good enough to give me the following particulars:—"Westerly winds force the ice on the Newfoundland shore, and those from the east on that of Canada; so that the safest plan is, as a rule, to keep in the centre of the Gulf, where there is almost always a movement in the ice when the tide turns. Capt. Joy, who has been much in the Gulf, informs me that he thinks there are two currents, one going N.E., the other S.W., which meet off Cape Whittle, keeping that part of the Gulf more or less open. I do not think the masters of the Gulf boats make up their minds as to what Seals they are going after until they enter the Gulf and ascertain the state of the ice, and how the winds are. Owing to the prevalence of westerly winds, I do not think the eastern Harps were ever seen last year, and these same winds blew the western Harps, which are seldom got at, towards the Newfound-