Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/75

Rh got this year off the east coast than usual. To show the relative results of the two years, I give the returns for the last two seasons of the nineteen steamers:— On the same basis as last year the produce of 1901 should have weighed 7354 tons, a difference of 703 tons; whereas the actual difference was 872 tons, or a loss of 169 tons.

The 'Aurora' made the largest catch, viz. 32,407; the 'Neptune' next, with 27,628. There were eleven others above 15,000, and three others above 10,000, leaving two, the 'Kite' with only 8,216, and the 'Harlaw' with 453, both of which went to the Gulf fishery, which, as has been already explained, was virtually a failure. The average of the whole was 18,178, ten vessels having more than that number, and nine less. The estimated value of the produce, at about the same rate as last year, is given above. Pale Seal-oil was worth £23 per tun of 252 gallons.

The St. John's 'Evening Telegram,' commenting upon the immature quality of the Harp Seals brought in this season, advocates a further amendment of the sealing laws, with a view to postponing the departure of the ships until the 12th or 13th of March, pointing out the enormous loss incurred by the destruction of the extra number of small Seals killed to make up the weight of a full cargo; but, on the other hand, there are those who deprecate the too frequent alterations in the sealing laws, or the attempt to legislate for an abnormal season such as that just passed certainly was.

Since the season of 1897 only three Right Whales have been seen in the Greenland Seas by the Scotch whalers, two of which were killed. It is not surprising therefore that in the past season, for the first time for I know not how many years, not a single British whaler has visited the once prolific seas between East Greenland and Spitzbergen. Whether the Whales are actually worked out, or whether they will again be found when the ice returns to its normal condition in these seas—a change in which direction seems to have already set in—I cannot venture an opinion; but the fact remains that the once highly remunerative