Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/92

66 to give a brief outline of the voyage of the 'Neptune,' Capt. S. Blandford, which is typical of all the rest. As already mentioned, on the 11th of March, some twenty-five miles N.E. of the Funk Islands, the 'Neptune' met with the first young Seals, but, judging that the main body of the breeding pack was to be found farther to the northward, Capt. Blandford, steamed thirty or forty miles in that direction in search of them, but on the 13th bad weather came on, and the vessel barely escaped being driven ashore on the Funks. From the 14th to the 18th the hurricane continued, and during the detention many old Seals were seen passing; they were, as their custom is, south of their young, and doubtless in search of food. Capt. Blandford estimates that some seventy miles of practically barren ice drifted past in a south-westerly direction before the whelping ice with the "Whitecoats" upon it appeared. This drift caused the pans bearing the young Seals to pass inside the Funks, although at the time he met the small patch, on the 11th of March before mentioned, the main body was seventy miles away in a northerly direction. The storm which thus brought the young Seals so conveniently within easy reach having somewhat abated, on the 18th March the 'Neptune,' with the 'Newfoundland' in company, headed in a westerly direction, and at once came up with them. By Monday, the 20th, 16,000 Seals were panned; the next day 15,000 more were added; and by Wednesday the total was made up to 41,000. Then came the usual waste: "the elements were unpropitious, and three pans were driven on the Funks and ground to pieces, two more went over Brenton's Rock to destruction, while on Sunday three pans were smashed on the Cabots, leaving only 32,000." As the bulk of the Seals were obtained by the other vessels in about the same locality and under the same conditions as to weather, it is probable that a similar loss of panned Seals was also experienced by them; but Capt. Blandford says that he was probably the greatest sufferer in this respect. I have said that very few old Seals were killed, in proof of which it may be mentioned that out of 17,286 Harps killed by the 'Newfoundland,' only fifty-three were old ones.

Four vessels—the 'Hope,' the 'Kite,' the 'Harlaw,' and the 'Nimrod'—went to the Gulf fishery. None of these was very successful, with the exception of the 'Hope,' which fell in with