REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 117 



41G. Tlio Tiuliiiii lumters of tlie Tsliinisian tribes say tliat before the 

 seals were so much limited, some of them used to give birth to their 

 young on rocky islets in Hecate iStrait. laving linnt<'rs bad seen this. 



417. At i>ella-Bella, the Indian hunters stated tluit as long as they 

 themselves could remember, seals were very al)undant in that vicinity. 

 They had gradually decreased in number till al)out four years ago, 

 since which they had been moderately abundant for three years, and 

 in 1891, had shown a marked increase in number. They sometimes, but 

 rarely, saw seals, both male and female, coming out on the rocks. Two 

 or three had at various times been killed on shore. 



418. The Indians of Nawitti, who hunt about the north end of Yan- 

 couver Island, had no complaint to make of scarcity of seals. They 

 said, on the contrary, that the hunting further at sea by schooners 

 had, they thouglit, driven the seals into the entrance of Queen Char- 

 lotte Sound in greater numbers than before. They had occasionally 

 seen seals of different ages sleeping on the rocks. 



419. At Clayoquot Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, 

 seals were said to have been very numerous long ago, but to have been 

 seen in smaller numbers for some ten or fifteen years j)ast. At Ahouset, 

 also in 01ayo(iuot Sound, the Indians said they had never seen or heard 

 of seals coming ashore to breed, or for any other i)urpose. 



420. At ISTeah Bay, near Cape Flattery, the Indians stated that the 

 seals seen by them, in that vicinity, are now fewer and inore wary than 

 before, and more difficult to kill. They have never seen even a single 

 seal on the rocks, but always at sea. 



421. Keferring to the same place, Judge J. G. Swan writes, iu 1880, 

 that between 1857 and 18Gti seals Mere very few, but that since that 

 time they had appeared in much larger numbers.* 



422. Mr. E. Finlayson and Mr. T. Moffat, both long identified with 

 the Hudson's Bay Company on the West Coast, believe that the fur-seals 

 became notably more numerous in the waters adjacent to the coast of 

 British Columbia about the time tlie Alaska Commercial Company 

 obtained possession of the Pribylott Islands. This they attribute to 

 some difference in the mode of cnptare practised on these islands, in 

 consequence of which the seals changed their former habits. Captain 

 Bryant has also particularly referred to the abundance of fur seals 

 along the coast of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia in 1809.t 



423. Some years in which exceptionally large numbers of sen Is have 

 been noted along various parts of the coastof British Columbia are 

 referred to in other parts of this report. (See particularly § 223.) 



424. On another page, and in connection with the subject of the 

 76 migrations and habitat of the fur seal Mr. J. W. Mackay has been 

 cited with reference to the former abundance of seals upon the 

 southern part of Vancouver Island. His informants on this point were 

 old Indian hunters of the Songis, Sooke, and Tlalum tribes, inhabiting 

 the adjacent coasts. The following additional statements by the same 

 gentleman, from their bearing on changes iu habits of the seal, may 

 appropriately be included here : " The Indians above quoted stated that 

 the fur-seal bred on the IJace Bocks, on Smith's Island (AVashingtoii), 

 and on several islands of the Gulf of Georgia. They used to have their 

 young to within a recent period on the Haystack Islands, off Cape Scott, 

 Vancouver Island. It is probable that a few individuals still breed 



* "Fishery Industries of the United States," vol. ii. p. 394. 

 t " Monograph of North American Pinnipeds," p. 332. 



