Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/107

Rh possible for the vessel to reach them. 271 young and 181 old Hoods were the only reward for a very arduous voyage.

The total number of Seals brought in by the fleet of nineteen steamers, of the aggregate register of 6053 tons, and manned by crews numbering 3760 men, was 353,276 (against 268,787 in the previous season), of an estimated net value of £96,720 (against ₤68,527 in 1899). To these must be added some 10,000 taken by the schooners and by the inhabitants of the Magdalene Islands, which would bring the value of the produce up to nearly ₤100,000. This was very equally distributed, all but three or four of the vessels making paying voyages, and the majority doing exceedingly well. The 'Neptune' took the lead with 36,255 Seals, followed closely by the 'Terra Nova' and the 'Aurora,' with more than 32,000 each; eight others had over 15,000 each, and five more above 10,000; the 'Kite,' for the reasons already named, brought in the produce of 452 Hooded Seals only. The average of the whole nineteen vessels was 18,594, eleven of them having cargoes above that average, and eight below it. The price of produce was fairly remunerative, oil fetching, say, £23 per tun; and Mr. Thorburn tells me that a new market has been found for oil in Italy, which promises to be of great assistance to the sealing industry. No casualty has been reported to mar the success of the voyage.

In the ten years, 1871 to 1880, inclusive, 218 vessels killed 2,434,063 Seals, and in the decade, 1891 to 1900, there fell to the lot of 181 vessels 2,422,125 of these animals. But these enormous numbers by no means represent the whole reckoning, for they are only the produce of the steam fleet, and do not include (i) those killed and lost on the ice, (ii) those taken by the schooners, or (iii) those killed from the shore, or on the Labrador coast. Even the total number of skins exported from Newfoundland would not give the exact number killed, for they would not include the first mentioned shrinkage, and I have not the full statistics of the two periods at hand; but my object in making the comparison was to ascertain, if possible, what effect this enormous destruction of the old and young Seals has had upon the numbers frequenting the ice-floes of the North Atlantic in the breeding season. The result is rather surprising, for it will be seen that in the first period the catches averaged 11,165 per