ORAL ARGUMENT OF FREDERICK R. COUDERT, ESQ. 417 



And on every one of those sbi])S one-half the men were green hands 

 and this 2.5 per cent is not 25% of total loss inclnding the wounded but 

 only 25% of those they actually shoot, when they are at a distance of 

 30 or 40 yards and by the time they get up, particularly if the seal is 

 shot in the neck, it sinks and cannot be recovered. 



I have here the extract from the agreement of the Sealers Association 

 which I read the other day. It requires that all hunters in excess of 

 three shall be new men in the business of seal hunting. In each boat 

 there are six or seven men; so that half the men are these green hands 

 who fail to recover one quarter of the seals that they kill. We have 

 the testimony of this journalist, Mr. McManus, who said they would go 

 out and blaze away all day and come back with nothing at all, and say 

 they had killed them but lost them, and that the powder was bad, or 

 the boat was clumsy. There is no reason to suppose that the testimony 

 of this gentleman was not true, and there is no reason to suppose that 

 there were worse shots on his boat than on any other. 



I will read some very brief extracts. I will not trouble the court to 

 look at the volumes, but will give it to my friends on the other side as 

 I go on. It is so very brief that the court would be troubled to very 

 little purpose. I am about reading from the Case of the United States, 

 Ap|)endix, vol. II, ]). 313. This is what Peter Andersen of Victoria, a 

 sealer, says: 



I have been engaged iu the last three years in taking seal in the North Pacific 

 Ocean and Behriug Sea in capacity of boat-steerer. The vessels I was employed on 

 are as follows: Black Diamond, Ariel, and Umhrina, all British schooners. First saw 

 and took seal off Cape Flattery in March and we followed them clear up the coast 

 into Bebring Sea, where we arrived abont July Ist. Sbot gnu and rifle exclusively 

 in the boats I was in, thence I am satisfied that 33 1/3 per cent shot with a shot gnu 

 are lost, and when a rifle is used a larger per cent are lost when killed. 



That is more than half where a rifle is used. That is in perfect accord 

 with the British Commissioners who say that the shot gun is much 

 more deadly. They recommend superseding the rifle with the shotgun. 



Bernard Blaidner, of Victoria, a sealer, says: 



On an aveiage we saved one out of three that were killed. 



I want to call the attention of the court to that language used in 

 almost every one of the depositions. I admit that at first I was misled 

 and (lid not see the point of the distinction. There are two ways, one 

 killing the animal and losing him so that you cannot recover him at 

 any time, and the other wounding him and allowing him to escape. 



Mr. Christ Clausen, of Vi(;toria, master mariner, says: 



The Indian hunters, when they used spears saved nearly every one they struck. 

 It is my observation and experience that an Indian, or a white hunter unless very 

 expert, will kill and destroy many times more than he will save, if he uses firearms. 

 It is our object to take them when asleej) on the water, and any attemjit to capture 

 a breaching seal, generally ends in failure. 



Alfred Dardean of Victoria, sealer, was out sealing in 1890 and 

 caught 2,159 skins. He says: 



We had seven boats, and a stern boat and three men to a boat. Our hunters used 

 shot guns, and were good hunters. They lost a good many seals, but I do not know 

 Avliat proportion was lost to those killed. Some of the hunters would lose four out 

 of every six killed. We tried to shoot them while asleep, but shot all that came in 

 our way. If we killed tbera too dead a great many would sink before we could get 

 them and were lost. Sometimes we could get some of these that had sunk with the 

 gaff hook, but could not save many that way. A good many are wounded and escape 

 only to die afterwards. 



llunters talk about the seals increasing from year to year, but I know they are 

 decreasing, and if they keep on killing them the way they do now there will not be 

 any left in a few years. 



B S, PT XII 27 



