54 REPORT OF liRlTISH C^OMMISSIONERS. 



tliom take rofiifi^e in tlio Inr^or sounds dnrinjx stormy wentlior; I have 

 scon tlicni oil" Mctla-katla, in tlic month of .January." 



184:. Ca])tain .John Devorcux, who 1ms boon lor twonty-sovon yoars on 

 the coast of r>ritisli (Columbia, and luis liad oxcollont o])i)ortnnitic8 for 

 obsorvation, in comnmnd oftlie Canadian (lovornmont stoamor "Dong- 

 las," informs us, in rojily to questions addressed to him, that iVom the 

 latter part of November, or early in December, to the beginniufif of June, 

 the fur-seal is found oft' the coast of the entire length of Vancouver 

 Island, but that in the early winter the weather is altogether too rough 

 for hunting, lie adds, "When they are found along the baidc on the 

 west coast of Vancouver Island thoy are feeding on their natural feed- 

 ing-grounds." He further states tliat, though olten far off the land, he 

 has frequently found them inshore, and even eighteen miles up Uarclay 

 Sound ; as well as in the Strait of Fuca, and, on rare occasions, in the 

 Gulf of (leorgia. 



185. Near Oape Flattery and about the entrance of the Straits of 

 Fuca, it is rei)ortod that the Indians have on exce])tiona] occasions 

 seen seals as early as December, ami schooners have been known to 

 take seals in that month off the (yai)e; but the seals usually arrive 

 about the 1st rlaiiuary, when hunting begins. Grey ])ups ai'e the first 

 to appear, but in l^'ebruary all sorts of seals are found, except mature 

 males. No full-grown bulls have ever been seen in this vi(;inity. No 

 fenmles with puj) are found after the 5th or (!th July, and it is prob- 

 able that only a few stragglers of any kind renmin, though, acccnding 

 to Judge Swan, occasional seals are to be found here at all seasons. 

 The last seals seen in summer are as a rule males or barren females. 

 In exceptional instances a few seals, probably grey ])nps or yearlings, 

 have been noted in recent years as far up the Straits of Fuca as Vic- 

 toi'ia and Port Townsend. Mr. J. W. Mackay, already quoted, states 

 that the older hunters of the Songis, Sooke, and Tlalum tribes, living 

 on or near the southern end of Vancouver Island, told him that in for- 

 mer years fur-seals were in the habit of landing in large numbers at 

 liace Ivocks, Avithin 11 miles of Victoria. Fur-seals also many years 

 ago frequented the (lulf of (Jeorgia, and Mr. Mackay has himself 

 bought skins from the Seshal Indians, of Jarvis Inlet, which they liad 

 taken at Sangster Island, near Texada Island. 



180. From the foregoing notes, end)odying the result of careful 

 inquiries ])ersonally made at the localities referred to along a stretch 

 of 2,000 miles of the west coast of the Continent, it is evident that in 

 that part of the ocean adjacent to the entire length of the coast of 

 British Columbia, as well as within the main openings and inlets of 

 that coast, the fur-seal is a i)ermanent winter resident, arriving soon 

 after it is known to have passed soutlnvard through the Aleutian chain, 

 and remaining till a general movement to the north begins in the early 

 spring, and, tliongh the movement last referred to acquires greater 

 force and regularity towards its close, no time occurs between the 

 arrival of the seals IVom the north and the return migration, at which 

 they are not fouml otf this coast. 



187. To the north of the Queen Charlotte Islands, however, the case 

 is different, for here, as already stated, the seals do not follow the 

 coast in the autumn migration, whereas they move in rather close 

 parallelism or contiguity to it when on their way north in tlie spring 

 and early summer. Thus, in the vicinity of Sitka some seals appear 

 near the coast as early as the middle of April, but they become abun- 

 dant during May, and some are still seen in the early i^art of June. 



On the Fairweather ground, in the Gulf of Alaska, seals are most 



