22 DEPARTMENT OF THE NATAL SERVICE 



8 GEORGE V, A. 1918 



pairs. Boots from these hides stand "water as well as rubber boots. A pair were 

 made for a customer, who has to wade throug*h water and chemical liquor all the 

 time while at work, and even here they gave excellent satisfaction. For boot purposes, 

 green hides are better than dry hides, but all sea-lion hides are good. 



Mr. Grinnell would be glad to consider a proposal to bi:iy all the sea-lion hides 

 that could be delivered to him, and is sure if he could get the supply at a fair pritee 

 he could build up a large industry. He would be willing to pay 5 cents a pound for 

 green hides if he were guaranteed 5,000 hides. If he could get hides in large enough 

 numbers to make it worth while he could ship them to San Francisco, as he has a 

 standing order to ship any hides he can get at 6 or 7 cents a pound -for green hides 

 of females and pups and 2 cents a pound for males, but he has to pay the freight. 

 It would take 5,000 per annum to satisfy this demand. 



If the lions can be obtained, the skinning is a simple matter. A good man can 

 skin a lion in from fifteen to twenty-five minutes and should be able to skin three or 

 four an hour. He would thus make good wages if he could get steady work for the 

 day at 25 cents a skin. 



Mr. Grinnell is of the opinion that the oil from the sea-lion alone should make it 

 worth while saving the carcass, and the remainder of the carcass made into guano 

 or chicken food should command a good price. 



P. H. McMullen, representing the McMullen Hide and Fur Company, 956 Powell 

 street, Vancouver, said he would handle any quantity of sea-lion hides at a price similar 

 to that suggested by Mr. Grinnell. 



14. BOUNTY PAYMENTS FOR KILLING SEA-LIONS. 



By good fortune the commission interviewed A. K. Sinclair, 2940 Ontario street, 

 Vancouver, a sea-faring man, an old sealer and perhaps the pioneer sea-lion hunter for 

 profit in British Columbia. He tells the sea-lion story from a different viewpoint, 

 that of the hunter. In May, 1914, he was on a hunting trip for Hibbard & Stewart, 

 hide dealers, 958 Powell street, Vancouver, as skipper of the schooner Tuladi, the 

 agreement being that he was to receive 3 cents a pound for green salted sea-lion hides, 

 delivered in Vancouver. 



He was at Rivers inlet on May 26, 1914, where, he states, he organized the plan 

 mentioned elsewhere in this report by which the canners there gave $1,050 in bounty 

 in an effort to diminish the depredations of the sea-lions by killing off a number of 

 them. 



■Sinclair had to wait about a week for good weather before he could get on the 

 Virgin rocks. From his anchorage in Schooner Retreat, every day he spied out the 

 land until conditions were ripe. On June 5 or 6 he made a landing on the Virgin 

 rocks from a dory. The sea-lions made as if they would prevent his landing, but after 

 killing five or six of them from the dory he and one hunter succeeded in getting on the 

 rocks. They left one man on the schooner and one man in the dory not far from the 

 rocks. It was breeding season, and all the sea-lions stayed on the rocks when the 

 landing was made. The lions were not frightened, they did not stampede, they seemed 

 indifferent to the visitors. If any sea-lions slid off the rocks on the approach of the 

 hunters they returned to the rocks after the hunters landed. 



The hunters shot all the cows and bulls they could within that radius, and cut the 

 tails from all they had killed to collect the bounty. They started killing at 6 in the 

 morning and finished at 2 in the afternoon. At the end of the killing, 750 tails were 

 counted. They then turned back to Rivers inlet, declared enough tails to collect $1,050 

 and hoping that more bounty might be put up they did not reveal the possession of a 

 greater number. 



