202 CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Canada, Province of British Columl/ia, city of Victoria. 



I, Neils Moss, of the city of Victoria, Province of British Columbia, 

 Dominion of Canada, master mariner, do solemnly and sincerely declare 

 as follows : 



1. The hereinafter-mentioned schooner " Kate" is a British vessel, 

 registered at the port of Victoria, British Columbia, and owned by 

 Charles Spring, of the same i>lace. 



2. On or about the 1st June, 18<S0, 1 cleared the said schooner "Kate," 

 as master thereof, at the Custom-house, i)ort of Victoria, for a fishing 

 and hunting voyage in the Xorth Pacific Ocean and Behring Sea. 



CJnx the following day the " Kate" sailed on said voyage, fully equipped 

 and provisioned tor a whole season's voyage, and carrying a crew of 

 four men. 



3. On the west coast of Vancouver Islaiul T engaged and took on 

 board sixteen Indian hunters and sailed northw^ard, entering Behring 

 Sea on or about the 2()th .Inly following, having then on board twenty- 

 four seal-skins caught outside Behring Sea. 



■L. A few days after entering the sea the hunters began taking seals, 

 and continued to do so u]> to the loth August following, on which day 

 the " Kate" had on board 030 seal-skins. 



5. On said 13th August, at about (5 o'clock in the evening, the United 

 States revenue cutter "llichard Rush," steamed up to the '-Kate," 

 within hailing distance, and an officer asked jne what 1 was doing. I 

 replied that 1 was fishing. He said that he had orders to order all 

 schooners out of Behring Sea if cauglit sealing, and if he saw me again 

 in the sea he would seize me. The wind was blowing a gale at the time, 

 and the cutter steamed away. 



0. In consequence of what had been said to me by the ofiicer of the 

 said cutter 1 at once determined to leave the sea and not risk seizure, 

 and on the l(>th day of the said month of August tiie " Kate " sailed out 

 of Behring Sea by the Ounimak Pass, and sailing south reached Vic- 

 toria about the lOth September, after some days' delay on the west coast 

 of Vancouver Island. 



7. Before being spoken by the said cutter, my intention was to remain 

 in Behring Sea until the 1st September, and with the hunters 1 had and 

 average weather I verily believe that by the 1st September, had not 

 the "Kate" been ordered to leave the sea and threatened with seizure 

 if seen again by the said cutter, the said "Kate" would have made a 



total catch of not less than 2,000 seal-skins. The best part of tlie 

 55 sealing season in the said sea was about beginning, and in the 



three days just preceding the said 13tli August the hunters on 

 the "Kate" brought in about 300 seal skins. 



1, Neils Moss aforesaid, make this solemn declaration, conscientiously 

 believing the same to be true, and by virtue of "The Act respecting 

 Extra-Judicial Oaths." 



(Signed) Neils Moss. 



Signed and declared by the said Neils Moss, the 7th day of December, 

 A. D. 188i), before me. 



(Signed) Authitr L. Belyea, 



Notary Public by Royal Authority in and 



for the Province of British Columbia. 



