152 CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



8. To bring' these vessels from Sitka to Victoria, a distance of about 

 900 miles, will involve a cost of at least 1,000 dollars to purchase the 

 necessary materials and take them to Sitka, and to convey the neces- 

 sary men to Sitka and pay their wages. From leaving Victoria until 

 arrival back with any one of said vessels would take about two months, 

 or perhaps a few days less iu the summer months, and a few days more 

 in the winter mouths. 



4. A full hunting and sealing season begins as early as the 1st Jan- 

 uary and up till the 1st March, and extends thence until the end of 

 September. 



This season is divided into two parts, the coast season and theBehring 

 Sea season. The coast season terminates about the end of June, but 

 vessels intending to go to Behring Sea generally leave the coast fishing 

 during the month of May, sealing as they go northward, and reaching 

 Behring Sea the end of June or beginning of July. The best period 

 of the sealing season in Behring Sea varies in dift'eient years accord- 

 ing to the prevailing weather from about the 20th July to the end of 

 September, after which date, though seals are plentiful, stress of weather 

 compels sealing- vessels to leave the sea and go south. 



5. On sealing voyages the hunters are paid in lieu of wages so much 

 per seal-skin on each skin they capture, receiving from 2 to 2^ dollars 

 per skin. The masters are generally j)aid partly in wages and partly 

 in the same manner as the hunters. 



The only vessel in theBehring Sea in either of the seasons of ISSG or 

 1887 that made a reasonably full catch of seals was the schooner "Mary 

 Ellen," of Victoria, which, in the season of 1880, took 4,250 seal-skins. 

 On and for said season the ''Mary Ellen" carried fifteen hunters and 

 five boats, an average catch i)er boat of 851 seal skins, the five boats 

 being about equal to eight or nine canoes. The "Mary Ellen" was the 

 only vessel in Behring Sea in either 1880 or 1887 which, so far as 1 know, 

 or am able after inquiry to learn, remained the full season in said sea on 

 and about the best sealing grounds without being disturbed by the 

 United States authorities. And I believe that the said steam-schooners 

 "Grace Dolphin" and "Anna Beck," and the said schooner " W. P. Say- 

 ward," which were the best equipped vessels for sealing that had ever 

 entered the Behring Sea, would have, if not seized or disturbed by the 

 United States authorities, made an equally large catch iu said years 

 1880 and 1887, there being no reason why they should not do so. 



0. The masters of the steam-schooner "Thornton" and schooner 

 "Onward," and the mate of the schooner " Carolena," after their arrival 

 at Sitka as prisoners in the latter part of August, entered into an agree- 

 ment with one Clarke, a counsellor-at-law at Sitka, to defend their ves- 

 sels and themselves on their pending trial at Sitka before the United 

 States District Court, and the charge of 500 dollars for legal expenses 

 at Sitka in the case of each of the said vessels is to cover the claim of 

 said Clarke. 



7. The wages of the ere v of each of the said seized vessels, except 

 the "Alfred Adams" and "Onward," are based on two months' service 

 exi^iring, on the day of seizure in each case. In the "Adams" and 

 "Onward" cases, the crews were paid up to the time of their arrival at 

 Victoria. 



And I, James Douglas Warren aforesaid, make this solemn declara- 

 tion, conscientiously believing the same to be true, and by virtue of 

 "The Act respecting Extra-Judicial Oaths." 



(Sigued) J. D. Wauren. 



