VESSELS USED. 335 



the American sehooner San Diego, of San Francisco, entered the Bering 

 Sea, and after taking about 2,200 seal-skins brought them to Victoria 

 and sold them. This gave impetus to the trade and the following year 

 Victoria schooners entered the sea. New vessels were subsequently 

 added to the fleet and other firms embarked in the business. In 1886 

 three Victoria vessels were seized, since which time there has been 

 trouble over the Bering Sea sealing industry. Since that time the 

 fleet has been gradually increasing until now. Previous to this time 

 (1880) but few white hunters were employed and the Indian hunters 

 used spears only. By so doing they secured all the seals struck, and 

 did not scare the balance; of late years, however, all the Indians 

 carry and use shotguns in addition to their spears. About fifty-six 

 schooners have cleared from Victoria this spring. Thirty of them 

 carry white hunters and the balance Indians. 



Ten years ago a British schooner came up to Pachenah Bay to get 

 Indian hunters, and schooners Lave been coming 

 in there for that purpose every season since, in- Moses, p. 309. 

 creasing in number year by year until now there 



are nearly one hundred sealing schooners engaged in hunting seals along 

 the coast. 



During the last eight or ten years I have been hunting seals in 

 smaller canoes and were taken farther out to sea 

 by schooners that would carry ten or fifteen small Wilson Parker, 2). 392. 

 canoes, each canoe manned by two Indians. 



Previous to 1885 only two or three sealing vessels bad ever gone to 

 the Bering Sea to hunt seals, and the sealing from 

 Victoria prior to 1880 was confined to the coast, chas. Peterson, p. 316. 

 and the crews were Indians who hunted with 

 spears. 



In 1889 I entered the Bering Sea in the schooner James 0. Swan. I 

 was never there before, norhave Ibeen there since. 

 About two years ago I began to hunt seals with John Tysum, p. 393. 

 the shotgun, but I have always earned a spear in 



my canoe, and frequently use it. I have sealed up and down the coast 

 in canoes between Destruction Island and the north end of Vancouver 

 Island. In latter years I have gone seal-hunting in schooners that 

 carried Indian canoes. Generally each canoe is manned by three In- 

 dians, one of which carries a spear. When a seal or a school of seals 

 are sighted the canoe is lowered and the Indians go toward the seal 

 and try to capture them, and at night we return to the schooner with 

 our catch. The seals are placed on board the schooner and skinned; 

 sometimes the carcasses are thrown into the sea, and sometimes they 

 are saved for food. 



Tears ago we went out in the ocean in canoes, but in later years 

 we take our canoes out on the ocean in schooners 

 and then hunt seals from the schooners. Have Charley White, p. 395. 

 never been any farther north than Barclay Sound. 



About ten years ago I commenced hunting seals from schooners, 

 using smaller canoes than I formerly did, and have 

 always used spears in hunting seals. About seven Wispoo, p. 396. 

 or eight years ago schooners came in with white 



