336 HISTORY. 



men who used shotguns, and have gradually increased in number and 

 size of vessels, until now there are nearly one hundred sealing schooners 

 engaged in sealing along the coast. 



Years ago I used to hunt seals in the Straits of San Juan de Fuca in 



the winter time, and in the summer time I would 



Hish Yulla,p. 397. hunt them in canoes from 10 to 20 miles off Cape 



Flattery, and of late years I hunt in a small canoe, 



and put it on a schooner and go up and down the coast between the 



mouth of the Columbia River and Barclay Sound. I have always used 



s pears in hunting the seals. 



Until about 1880 I hunted seals in large canoes, in which I always 



used the spear. In the last eight or ten years I 



Thos. Zolnoks, p. 398. have hunted for seals in small canoes carried on 



schooners, and sealed off Cape Flattery from 20 to 



75 miles, and as far south as the Columbia River and north up to the 



passage into Bering Sea, but have never hunted for seals in those waters. 



INTRODUCTION OF FIREARMS. 



I'age 188 of The Case. 



My people commenced using guns in seal-hunting about three years 

 ago, but they always carried spears, and but few 



Peter Brown, p. 377. of them ever use guns unless employed to do so 

 by white men. 



About seven years ago they commenced to kill seals with rifles and a 

 little later they used shotguns, but 1 have always 

 Charlie, p. 304. hunted with the spear; but very few Indians that 



go from Pachenah Bay or from Neah Bay use 

 guns; we prefer the spear, because we are afraid that if we use guns 

 they will get frightened away and not come back again, and also be- 

 cause we lose a great many of the seals that we shoot; but with the spear 

 we make no noise and get almost all that we hit. There are about 100 

 seal-hunters that live at Pachenah Bay and make their living by hunt- 

 ing seals. 



.hunts Claplanhoo, p. Until tnree or four y ears a £° T T used nothing 

 381. but spears in hunting seals; now 1 sometimes use 



a gun. 



The first six years 1 employed Indian hunters from Cape Flattery and 



they used spears exclusively, as the opinion then 



James Dalgarduo, p. was that the sound of firearms would tend to drive 



3,il - off the seals as well as waking the sleeping ones, 



thus making it more difficult to secure them. 



During two of the eight years I employed mixed crews, some Indians 

 and some whites; some using rifles and some using spears. The catch 

 was in round numbers from 1,500 to 3,000 skins per year, these figures 

 representing the lowest and the highest numbers ever taken by me in 

 any one year. 



