410 RESULTS. 



The present practice in pelagic sealing is to shoot them from a boat 



with a shotgun and secure them with a short- 



z. L. Tanner, p. 375. handed gaff. If killed instantly, they are apt to 



sink, unless picked up immediately. If wounded, 



they may be gaffed in their u flurry." 



DESTRUCTION OF FEMALE SEALS. 



TESTIMONY OF BRITISH FURRIERS. 



Page 198 of The Case. 



I can also tell by examining a skin whether it has been taken from a 



female or male. I have examined and sorted a 



George Bantu, p. 508. great many thousand skins taken from sealing 



schooners, and have observed that they are nearly 



all females, a few being old bulls and yearlings. A female seal has 



a smaller head and a larger belly when with young than a male seal, 



and the fur on the belly part, where the teats are, in consequence of 



being worn, is not worth much, and has to be cut off after being dyed. 



The skins of the male and female animal are readily distinguishable 

 from each other in the adult stage by reason of 

 H. S. Bevington, p. 552. the difference in the shape of the heads. That the 

 Copper and Alaska skins are almost exclusively 

 the skins of the male animal, and the skins of the Northwest catch are 

 at least 80 per cent of the skins of the female animal. That prior to 

 and in preparation for making this deposition deponent says he care- 

 fully looked through two large lots of skins now in his warehouse for 

 the especial purpose of estimating the percentage of female skins found 

 among the Northwest catch, and he believes the above estimate to be 

 accurate. 



That the skins in the Northwest catch are also pierced with shot and 

 spear marks, in consequence of having been killed in the open water 

 instead of upon land by club. 



The great majority of the skins sold from the Northwest catch are 

 the skins of female seals. Deponent is not able 

 Alfred Fraser, p. 557. to state exactly what proportion of such skins are 

 the skins of females, but estimates it to be at least 

 85 per cent, and the skins of females are readily distinguishable from 

 those of the males by reason of the fact that on the breast and on the 

 belly of the bearing female there is comparatively little fur, whereas on 

 the skins of the male seals the far is evenly distributed; and also by 

 reason of the fact that the female seal has a narrow head and the male 

 seal a broad head and neck; and the skins of this catch are also dis- 

 tinguishable from the "Alaska" and " Copper" catch by reason of the 

 fact that the seals are killed by ballets or buckshot, or speared, and 

 not, as on the Pribilof and Commander Islands, by clubs. Marks of 

 such ballets or buckshot or spears are clearly discernible in the skins, 

 and there is a marked difference in the commercial value of the female 

 skins and of the male skins. This fact, that the Northwest skins are 

 so largely the skins of females, is further evidenced by the fact that in 

 many of the early sales of such skins they are classified in deponent's 

 books as the skins of " females." 



