EEPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 53 



178. On tliat part of the const about Milbank and Fitzlmgli Sounds, 

 still further south, but unlike the last region in being fully open to the 

 Pacific, a few seals are seen about Christmas, or uot long thereafter. 

 They are generally first observed outside Cape Calvert. Seals are 

 most abundaut iu March, but a few remain till the latter part of Juue. 

 The seals coming first are chiefly females, but after about the 1st Juue 

 they are uearly all young males. Fully matured large males are found 

 in small nuDd)ers; grey pups or yearlings venture further into the inuer 

 chaunels, aud come nearer to the shores. 



179. About the north end of Vancouver's Island and the entrance to 

 (Jneen Charlotte Sound the seals are first seen early in December, but 

 not in any abundance until about Christmas, from which time, for a 

 month or six weeks, they are very numerous in all this vicinity; though 

 the stormy character of the weather prevents the Indian hunters from 

 going far to sea in i)ursuit of them. Thej^ are stated to disappear about 

 April. The females are the first to arrive in the winter, but are fol- 

 lowed by the grey pups or yearlings a little later, and in most of the 

 time during which the seals remain, both sexes and all ages are repre- 

 sented, though the grey pupij come nearest to the shore, particularly 

 when the weather is lough. In the winter of 1890-91, a number of 

 seals were killed by the Indians as far in as the entrance of Knight's 

 Inlet, and on one occasion (according to Mr. Huson, about 1870, in 

 March) a great number of grey pups ascended Knight's and Kingcombe 

 Inlets to their heads, following the ulachan, which seek these places 

 to spawn at this season. 



180. At Nootka, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, it is stated 

 that no seals are seen before Christmas, but in the first or second week 

 after that date, according to the weather, hunting begins, and is con- 

 tinued for three months. Occasional large old bulls are also rarely 

 seen here. 



181. AtClayoquot Sound, the seals arrive about Christmas, or between 

 that time and the end of December, and hunting begins early in Janu- 

 ViYy. The Indians report that some schooners hunt off that coast for 

 about a month from this date before going north. Seals of both sexes 

 ap])ear here and remain together, but no large bulls have ever been 

 seen. 



In 1885 seals were unusually abundant off Clayoqnot as early as the 

 10th or ir)th December, but were mostly grey i)ups ^'smalls," or 2 and 

 3 year- olds. 



182. About Barclay Sound the seals are first reported in December, 

 and are often very abundant during January and February. The 

 greater number leave before the end of Ajiril, when they begin to travel 

 north, but a few are killed, further out at sea, sometimes as late as the 

 15th June. 



Most of the skins brought in by Indians are grey jmps or " smalls," 

 but in 1891 there was an unusual number of adult skins. 



183. With further reference to the occurrence of fur-seals on the 

 30 A coast of British Columbia generally, the following note by Mr. J. 

 W. Mackay, who has for many years been conversant with this 

 coast, may be quoted. In rejily to inquiries made, he writes: "These 

 animals were driven to the ocean from the narrow waters by the use of 

 fire-arms in hunting. During the spring, numbers of the young ani- 

 mals fish in the broken waters inside the half-tide rocks and reefs which 

 fringe the western shores of Vancouver Island and of the other islands 

 which lie west of the mainland from Queen Charlotte Sound to Dixon 

 Entrance. The older animals remain further at sea, but numbers of 



