PERCENTAGE LOST. GENERAL STATEMENTS. 383 



Iii attempting to determine the sex of seals killed in the Bering Sea 

 and the North Pacific, and of the number of seals 



killed in excess of those actually secured by the 492 T/ie0, T ' Williams > P- 

 hunters, I had interviews with upward of 50 seal 



hunters, aside from interviews subsequently had with Indian hunters. 

 I found this portion of my work by far the most difficult. Much dis- 

 cussion had already been had about the damaging- effect of pelagic seal- 

 ing, and the hunters were loath to tell how many seals were killed and 

 not recovered, and were often averse to making truthful reports about 

 the sex of the animals killed; but by frequenting their haunts and cul- 

 tivating their company for long periods I succeeded in getting accurate 

 statements from a number of them. 



I found that at first the hunters were disposed to brag of their skill 

 and to overestimate tlieir success in securing skins 



of seals shot at. The reason for that was that an ^f ieo - T ' miUam8 > P- 

 impression prevailed among many of them that I 



was about to engage in sealing enterprises, and that I was making in- 

 quiries for the purpose of ascertaining their skill as hunters, with the 

 view to engaging them. 



The practice in British Columbia is to pay the best hunters the high- 

 est rate per skin. Men who could shoot fairly well, but who use a shot- 

 gun, could be secured for a sealing voyage from $1 to $1.50 per skin, 

 while hunters who shot with the rifle and were of recognized skill in 

 some instances were paid as high as $2.50 per skin, and generally speak- 

 ing as high as $2 per skin. The reason for this is obvious to those who 

 have interested themselves in the sealing business. A seal killed with 

 buckshot is so much punctured frequently that the pelt is of lessor 

 value. It is not profitable for schooners to engage as hunters men who 

 miss tlieir chances of killing the seals and blaze away indiscriminately 

 with small results. Even though the hunter is only paid for the skin 

 he recovers, the loss to the vessel by his failure to kill when an oppor- 

 tunity offers is equivalent to the profit it would have made on the skin 

 if secured. For these reasons and on account of the general proneness 

 of men, who consider themselves experts in the use of any weapon, to 

 brag, the seal hunters of British Columbia, as a class, grossly exaggerate 

 the percentage of skins they recover to the number of seals aimed at, 

 wounded, or killed. 



In attempting to ascertain exactly the number of seals killed and 

 lost by the Bering Sea hunters, I found a wide 

 divergence of statement. mP™' T ' " iUiam8 ' p ' 



It is greatly to the advantage of the seal hunter 

 to have the reputation of losing but few seals. He is paid by the skin, 

 and the more he catches the greater his remuneration; but that is not 

 all. The hunter with the best reputation as a sure catcher is in the 

 greatest demand, can secure employment in the best schooner, and the 

 largest sum of advance money. Besides self-interest, there comes vanity 

 to urge the hunter to make the biggest reputation possible for himself. 



To use a common expression, the seal hunters all brag about their 

 sureness of aim. The best shots use a rifle, and fire at a range of from 

 50 to 125 yards. The poorer shots depend on a shotgun loaded with 

 buckshot, and will fire at a seal up to 50 yards away. 



The Indian hunters use spears, and paddle noiselessly up to the sleep- 

 ing seal to plunge the spear in its shoulder. They never attempt to 

 spear a seal that is awake. An Indian hunter will paddle in among a 



