REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISHIONEKS. 145 



skins ol)t;iiiiO(l aie disposed of to various tiadois, but, in all probability, 

 about UOO are got at this ])la<'0 annu.illy. One of the liuntcis said tiiat 

 about twenty years ago lie li;i<l Iiimselt secuicd liOO seals, but as the 

 prices were then very low, he obtained Just 1 dollar each tor the skins. 



559. At Clayo(iuot Sound, the Indians stated that ia the tinu3S of 

 the gran(l-])arents of the i)resent generation, fur-seals were valued and 

 liuided only for food. They were then always killed with spears. 

 Indei)endent hunting with canoes from the shore has lalleu irdo disuse 

 foi' the last seven or ten years at Ahouset village and (jlayoquot proi)er, 

 respectively. The Indians from this vicinity now hunt only froiri 

 schooners, and many are so (Muployed every summer. Long ago many 

 of them were drowned when hunting independently, and this 

 90 mode of hunting has come to be (considered very dangerous. At 

 the present time, both the gun and si)ear are employed in taking 

 seals, according to (;ircumstaiu;esor the habits of the individual hunter. 



5(;(). At Barclay Sound, the Indians of several villages still engage 

 to a considerable extent in hunting in their own canoes from the shore, 

 but they arc also in many eases employed on sealing s(;hooners. The 

 number of seals taken by them in indei)endent hunting varies between 

 wide limits from year to year. In the spring of 1.S9I, about l,i{()0 skins 

 at least were taken to Victoria from this vi(cinity, all obtained in this 

 way. The spear is usually emi>loyed still in preference to the gun by 

 these hunters. 



5(11. The Makah Indians of the neighbourhood of Cape Flattery are 

 great seal-huiders. They themselves now own three srruill schooners, 

 wliich are registered at Port Townsend. Some of them go every year 

 in schooners owned by Whites, but the old method of inde[iendent 

 hunting from the shore is also still i)ractised. Two or three men gen- 

 erally go in each canoe, and occasionally stay out a night at sea, wliere 

 they are irequently as far as thirty miles from land. They usually still 

 sjiear the seals, whether hunting indei)endently or from s(;h()oners, 

 though the shot-gun is employed by some of the hunters. The older 

 men think that shooting is bad, but the younger men have taken to it. 

 The spear used has two prongs, with deta(;hable barbed heads. It is 

 about lilteen feet long, and is throwji from the liand, without a throw- 

 ing stick, the butt end being Hat and widened, with grooves cut in it for 

 the lingers. The same type of spear is employed by all the Alit people. 



5(52. The old men say that before they were born (say, about sixty 

 years ago), the fur-seal was landed for food and clothing, and was 

 abundant; but on several occasions a number of Indians lost their lives 

 at sea while huiding, and, consequently, for about twenty years the 

 hunting was practically given up. About the time the small-pox came 

 among them (probably in 1852, as ascertained from other sources) hunt- 

 ing began again, and has been coidinnetl ever since. They think that 

 it was about twenty-tlve years ago (§ 5<S()) when they first knew of 

 Whites going to sea to hunt the fur-seal. Nearly 1,0(»0 fur-seal skins 

 are annually got by the Makah Indians, but a considerable projjortion 

 of the whole nund)er is obtained by them in their schooners along the 

 coast to the northward or in liehring Sea, so that the precise number 

 taken in the vicinity of their own territory is diffuuilt to ascertain. 

 Nearly the whole of the skins taken by these Indians are sold iu 

 Victoiia. 



503. When the seals are speared, i)ractically none are lost, but when 

 shot some are lost by sinking, though a s])ear is employed to gaff them. 

 These Indians stated that in taking lifty seals, sometimes one, some- 

 times two, might be lost, but occasioiuUly none would be lost. 

 B S, I'T VI lU 



