116 REPORT OF BRlTiyJI COMMISSIONERS. 



412. At Sitka, both Whites and Indians, familiar with the sealing 

 business, stated that the hunters complained that the seals were now 

 Mild and diilieult to a])i)roach, and united in attributing- the eom])ara- 

 tively small native eateh of 1891 to this eause. They think that the 

 number of schooners engaged in the tishery is the reason of this 

 increased wariness. Cai)tain Morrisay stated that he did not think 

 the seals were less numerous at sea this year than before, but that, on 

 the contrary, all accounts show that they were more abundant than 

 usual, and that a good catch would have been obtained had they not 

 been so much disturbed by vessels. The Indians aver that long ago 

 the seals Avere very numerous about Sitka, and it is a tradition or 

 legend, that in early times they frequently landed on the islands in that 

 vicinity. Within the memory of the living hunters, single seals IukI 

 been seen ashore in various places on the islands otf Sitka and near 

 Cape Edgecombe. Two years ago, a fcjuale had been seen on the beach 

 on the outer side of Cape Ommeny. 



413. Among the Indians from Klawok, an old man explained that in 

 the time of his great-grandfather there were vast numbers both of 

 seals and sea-otters in that vicinity, and that the old people said that 

 in these times the seal gave birth to its young there. He had never 

 heard, however, that there were any special places to which the seals 

 resorted for that purpose. 



414. In the northern part of Queen Charlotte Islands, the Indians 

 state that the seals have now become so timid, that in a hunting 



75 season of tM'o months they sonuitimes kill about thirty seals only 

 to a canoe, whereas they formerly were ott en able to get the same 

 number in one day. When they first began to hunt seals systematic- 

 ally, they generally got them 5 or miles from the sliore, whereas at 

 the present time they had to go 15 or 20 miles. They attribute this 

 change to the schooners which they see engaged in hunting off their 

 coast. Edensaw, the old Chief, said that many years ago the seals Avere 

 often Ibund lying together on the water almost touching each other, and 

 oO or 50 in a bunch, but that now they are more widely scattered, lie 

 further stated, that in Ibrmer years he had sometimes seen full grown 

 bulls coming- ashore in various places on the west coast of the islands 

 in spring. Not many years ago, he had seen a female with a recently 

 born puj) on the shore near Cape Kaigani; and once, long ago, he had 

 found a female seal in the act of giving birth to two pups on Kose Spit. 

 These facts are of particular interest, from their bearing upon the state- 

 ments quoted by Professor J. A. Allen, on the authority of Cai)lain 

 Bryant, now more than ten years ago, for while they do not directly 

 conlirm this statement, they tend to sup{)ort it. deferring to Captain 

 Bryant, Professor Allen writes: "In his j\IS. Peport just received, he 

 states that a half-breed hunter told him that he found in summer, on 

 Queen Charlotte's Island, groups of these animals, consisting of two or 

 more beach-masters, with a dozen or more females and pups, but no 

 half-grown males."* 



415. Speaking of the same vicinity, and as the result of long experi- 

 ence, Mr. Alexander Mackenzie saitl that, judging from the number of 

 skins taken, seals were less abundant than formerly in Dixon Entrance, 

 but that the fact must also be taken into consideration, that there were 

 not now so many good hunters as before among the Indians. In 1881-82 

 and 1882-83 many skins were got, but in the years since 1885 the num- 

 ber of skins had been smaller than before. 



'Mouu^ra|j]i of North Auioricau Piuuipeds," p. 333. 



