Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/93

Rh the western Harps towards the end of March, about twenty miles north-west of Grindstone Islands, where, reaching them with difficulty, she secured 26,586. The 'Kite' struck the Seals in the same locality somewhat later, with every prospect of securing a good cargo, but in answer to signals of distress from the s.s. 'Gaspia,' a trader which was fast in the ice, left the sealing to go to her assistance, eventually convoying her safely into St. John's, but having captured only 699 Seals. The 'Harlaw' and the 'Nimrod' hunted in company in the neighbourhood of Cape St. George, the former capturing 1570 old and 2476 young Hoods (equal in weight to about 9000 young Harps), and the latter 3711 of the same species. These Hooded Seals are said to have been of an enormous size, but their capture was attended with considerable danger and labour, as the vessels could not get within three miles of the sheet on which they were, and the intervening ice was much broken and rafted.

Mr. Thorburn tells me that, owing to the severity of the frost in the month of February, the ice in the Gulf was unusually heavy, in consequence of which the eastern Harps were not seen at all, and the schooners fishing there made a very bad season; he estimates that the number of Seals which fell to these schooners, and to the shore fishers in Bonavista Bay, did not much exceed 20,000.

The total number of Seals captured by the eighteen steamers, of the aggregate capacity of 5500 tons, and manned by some 3500 seamen, was 268,787 (against 241,708 in the previous season), of a net value of £68,527, the price of produce being very disappointing. The bulk of the vessels were fairly fished, nine having more than 15,000: the 'Neptune' taking the lead with 32,129; five others had above 10,000, and the remaining four from three to four thousand each, with the exception of the 'Kite,' which, as already explained, was otherwise occupied, and killed only 699 Seals. The average of the whole was 14,932. The fishing in the past season, although the ice had been heavy and the weather rough, has been singularly free from disaster, and had prices ruled better would have been highly successful.

The Norwegian sealers, I have been informed, did very badly, and they are gradually being sold out of the trade; the Bottlenose fishery also produced about one-third less than in the