SEALING BY COAST INDIANS. 333 



about that distance off Cape Flattery. Since that time some of our tribe 

 have owned three or four small schooners, and those that go out in 

 them put their canoes and spears on the schooners and are carried from 

 50 to 75 miles off Gape Flattery and along- the coast from Columbia 

 River to Barclay Sound. In the earlier years when I went hunting- we 

 would not go out of the Straits of San Juan de Fnca during the winter 

 months and early in the spring. 



In former years we used to hunt in the Straits of San Juan de Fuca 7 

 and in the summer around Cape Flattery, but for 



the last few years we have had co go farther to Selwish Johnson, p. 388. 

 get them, and now we hunt from Columbia River 



to Barclay Sound. We put our canoes and spears on board of a schooner, 

 and go out from 10 to 00 miles off Cape Flattery. 



The idea of capturing seals in the water, when they are farther off 

 shore than the Indian canoes can safely follow 

 them, originated in San Francisco. A single Isaac Lilbes, p. 453. 

 schooner was fitted out and met with success. She 

 was afterwards joined by others, and finally by a small fleet, nearly all 

 American vessels. 



I have always huuted seals with the spear, and have never used the 

 gun or been in Bering Sea. I have always sealed 

 in the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, and around j a s. Lighthohse, p. 389. 

 Cape Flattery, and up and down the coast of Bar- 

 clay Sound to the Columbia River. I commenced going north to Bar- 

 clay Sound about ten years ago. 



I arrived in Sitka in November, 1868; remained there a few days and 

 went thence to Victoria, British Columbia, touch- 

 ing at all principal points between Sitka and Vic- H.H.Melnture,p.tf. 

 toria, spending the entire winter of 1868 and 1869 



among the Indians and fur traders, learning their traditions and cus- 

 toms, and noting their catches of furs and manner of doing business. 

 It came to my knowledge at that time that a considerable number of 

 fur-seals were being killed by the Indians, mostly by the use of spears, 

 in the waters adjacent to Vancouvers and Queen Charlottes islands. 

 The total catch obtained in this way amounted at this time, as I was 

 told by the late United States consul, Francis, to 3,000 to 5,000 skins per 

 annum. The consul further said that the catch was chiefly females, 

 many of which were pregnant. The Indians hunted from dugout ca- 

 noes, and could not go far from land. 



I have been engaged at seal hunting along the coast for the last ten 

 years. At first I hunted in large canoes, bat soon 

 commenced to go hunting in schooners. 0sl y> P- 2 9°- 



Indians were the principal hunters until about six years ago, and 

 they scarcely ever used anything but spears and Wm Parker) p- 344. 

 would save most all the seals they killed * * * 



There was hardly ever a sealing schooner that went to Bering Sea dur- 

 ing these years or prior to 1885, and there were only four or five that 

 sailed from here in the sealing business, and these carried Indian crews, 

 who hunted with spears and seldom went far from the coast. * * * 



Seals were almost exclusively taken on the coast during these years 

 and by Indian hunters, armed by spears. 



