Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/71



Newfoundland sealing, although as a whole fairly successful in the past season, presented some interesting features which will be referred to farther on. The number of steamers which left port was twenty—an increase of one, namely, the 'Southern Cross,' which made her first sealing voyage, having been purchased by Messrs. Murray and Sons on her return from her Antarctic exploration voyage of 1899-1900; but, as the 'Hope' came to an untimely end, the number actually employed was the same as in the season of 1900. Of these, four vessels went to the Gulf fishery; the rest to the east coast.

The usual day for the departure of the steamers is the 10th of March, but that day falling on Sunday in 1901, the vessels took their departure on the 9th, and, finding the young Seals almost at once, some very speedy returns were the result. The first to arrive was the 'Southern Cross,' which reached Harbour Grace on the 20th of March, after an absence of only nine and a half days, with a cargo of 26,563 Seals; she was quickly followed by the 'Aurora,' which arrived at St. John's on the morning of the 22nd, heavily laden with the produce of 32,407 old and young Harps and Hooded Seals; others arrived in rapid succession. The 'Southern Cross' reached the whelping ice, some eighty miles north by east of the Funk Islands, on the morning of the 12th March, and had the monopoly of the locality for some time; Zool. 4th ser. vol. VI., February, 1902.