384 RESULTS. 



lot of "sleepers" and spear them, one after the other, while a white 

 hunter who uses firearms alarms every seal in the neighborhood at the 

 first discharge. 



The Indians lose about one-third of all they spear, either from failure 

 to kill when they strike or because the dead seal sinks too quickly for 

 them to secure it. 



The white hunters do not get one-half of all they shoot. Some 

 hunters are very careful shots and will not fire unless the seal is well 

 within range, but the seal is likely to sink before the boat can get to 

 it, or, if wounded, will dive like a Hash to get away. A number of 

 hunters have boasted that they secure ninety-five seals for one hundred 

 shots, and some have made affidavits of even more wonderful exploits. 

 They presume too much on public ignorance and credulity. 



Fortunately, it is not necessary to depend on the statements of the 

 seal hunters. I secured access to the ship ac- 



T. T. Williams, p. 504. counts of several sealers, and found that in every 

 case the consumption of ammunition showed more 

 than ten cartridges used for every sealskin captured. 



I spent considerable time among the Si wash Indian sealers, and, while 

 they brag of their individual prowess, they admitted a loss of 30 per 

 cent at least. On this subject 1 append a statement made by Captain 

 Olsen, of the sealing bark Bessie Enter, of Victoria: 



Captain Olsen, of the American schooner Bessie Buter, of Astoria, 

 reached Victoria September 27, 1889. In the office of the American 

 consul, Col. K. Stevens, he said: " I took 550 skins in the Bering. Of 

 these 27 were pups, 520 females, and 3 male seals, which I killed off 

 the island of Kodiak. Most of the female seals were with young. I 

 had a green crew and green hunters. They used shotguns and some- 

 times the rifle. They got about 1 seal for every 3 they aimed at. Some 

 they missed altogether, and some of the wounded ones got away. 

 There is great risk of losing a traveling seal. The sleeping seal blow 

 up an air-bladder that keeps them from sinking, but the seal when 

 awake sink easily. Hooks are used to grapple them, but if the boat is 

 some distance from the seal when it is killed it does not often get it. 

 For that reason rifle shooting at long range hardly pays. I will get 

 about $7.75 for some of my skins and $8 for others. My voyage will 

 pay, because I ran the boat on the cheap. I only had two men to the 

 boat, and only paid my hunters $1 a skin, instead of $2, which is paid 

 to first-class hunters. Some very skillful hunters do not lose many 

 skins. They will never fire uidess a seal is at close range, and they 

 generally kill. Of course, they lose some from sinking. All the hun- 

 ters brag about how few they lose, because they want the reputation 

 of being good hunters. The better reputation they have the better 

 chance they get. 



" If the Bering Sea was open many new men would come into the 

 business, and the loss would be greater. Only a few men make suc- 

 cessful hunters. It is like being a clever rifle shot. If the best hunt- 

 ers lose ten or fifteen in a hundred the other kind lose ten times as 

 many, if not more. Green hands will throw away a lot ammunition, 

 shooting at everything they see, whether it is in range or not. You 

 san not stop them. They will wound more than they kill." 



