No. 22.
The whales in Hudson Bay.

An Ottawa letter to the Boston Herald says:

The Dominion Government is now considering the possibility of acting on the suggestion of Commander Gordon, in charge of the fishery protective service, and who has made several voyages to Hudson Bay to close the whale fisheries of Hudson Bay and Straits for a time, in view of the rapid depletion of this industry which has become apparent. The industry has almost entirely been carried on by New England whalers, and he suggests that, if they be allowed to continue, a heavy license for the privilege should be exacted. The New England whalers, it is reported, attack their prey with harpoons, explosive bombs, and lances, fired from large swivel guns carried on steam-launches, instead of the old-fashioned weapons thrown by hand from row-boats.

In giving his evidence, when this subject was brought up before a committee of the Senate this spring, Dr. Bell, of the Government geological staff, said that against such appliances as are now used by the New England whalers the whale has no chance to escape. It makes the capture much more certain, as the whalers can destroy life at once with the bomb and secure the animal. Thirty years ago the larger whales were quite common in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but were driven north by the large fleet of New England vessels engaged in the trade. They are now rarely seen off the Newfoundland coast, or even in Hudson Straits, where at one time they abounded in great numbers. The use of fire-arms, which led to the complete extirpation of the buffalo, is now at work in the whale fishery, and, according to Dr. Bell’s evidence, it is only a question of time when some of the species will become totally extinct. On being asked to suggest some means by which the extermination of the whales might be prevented, Dr. Bell said:

“I think charging a high, license to permit whaling—either charge it on the number of whales killed, the quantity of oil obtained, or so much a vessel—would decrease it. The Russian Government, I understand, claim jurisdiction over the whale fisheries of the White Sea, which is quite open as compared with Hudson Bay, Boothia Bay, and many of our large bays. They charge something like £300 a season for a permit for a vessel to kill whales, and if the whalers do not pay it they are driven out of those waters. Now, if the Russian Government can claim control over the whale fisheries of the White Sea, surely we can control Hudson Bay and Boothia Bay; and if the Americans can capture our sealers in Behring Sea, surely we can capture American whalers found in Hudson Bay and Boothia Bay.”