NOTES ON THE SEAL AND WHALE FISHERY, 1899.
By Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S.
The event of the year at St. John's is the starting of the sealing fleet, which this year (1899) took place under very favourable circumstances, the weather being fine and the harbour free from ice. As the clock struck eight on the morning of the 10th of March, those present witnessed the departure of twelve fine vessels, all making for the offing, their crews full of hope as to the result of the unknown future. The painful memory of the disasters which threw so deep a gloom over the voyage of the previous season could not fail to be present in the minds of the spectators, whose cheers, added to the salutes from the steam-whistles of the vessels, made the hills re-echo as the fleet steamed out to brave the hardships and dangers of the ice-fields. Happily no such disaster has to be recorded as resulting from the voyage thus so auspiciously commenced.
Of the eighteen steamers present at the Newfoundland fishery fourteen made for the ice off the east coast, and four left channel for the Gulf fishery; the latter, as will be seen, meeting with only partial success. All those which fished off the east coast did well, and the young Harps (few old Seals were killed) were in exceptionally fine condition; at the whelping time severe frosts prevailed, and experience shows that in such weather the young Seals thrive and rapidly become fat.
The first to strike the "Whitecoats" was the 'Neptune,' which met with a small and isolated patch near the Funk Islands, on the 11th of March; later on they were found in great numbers, and by the 29th of the same month three of the vessels were back again at St. John's with full cargoes—a most expeditious voyage, notwithstanding some delays arising from bad weather.
As the most successful vessel of the fleet, it will be sufficient
