218 



REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



(E.) — Sales of Copper Island Salted Fur-Seal SMns. 



293 



219 Appendix (H). 



Affidavits Relating to Pelagic Sealino. 

 Mr. Milne to Mr. Tupper. 



Customs, Canada, Victoria, B. C, January 22, 1892^ 

 Sir: I have tlie honour to acknowledge the receipt of yonr communication of the 

 7th instant relative to a joint letter from Sir George Baden-Powell and Dr. George M. 

 Dawson, Behriiig Sea Commissioners. 



I beg to state tliat I have endeavoured to supply the information, and herewith 

 transmit the first lot of affidavits of some of the most reliable of our sealing men, 

 and 1 am continuing to take all I can obtain, which will be forwarded from day to day. 

 I trust the information is what is wanted, as I have endeavoured to frame the ques- 

 tions so that the answers would show reasons for their intelligent answers on the 

 three questions: 



1. The proportion of seals lost as compared with hit. 



2. The proportion of females to males killed in the different months. 



3. The abstention of Canadians from all raiding, &c. 



I have, &c. 



(Signed) A. R. Milne, Collector. 



Depositions talicn iefore A. B. Milne, Collector of Customs, Port of Victoria, B. C. 



Cereno Jones Kelley, master of the Canadian schooner "C. H. Tupper," of Shel- 

 bourne, Nova Scotia, having been duly sworn — 



1. Mr. Milne. How many years have you been engaged in sealing, Captain Kel- 

 ley? — A. I have been sealing for two yeai-s as master of the "C. H. Tupper." 



2. Q. Have your voyages Ijeen reasonably fortunate, in comparison with those of 

 other vessels ? — A. About an average. 



3. Q. Have you gone south of Cape Flattery in hunt for seals? — A. Yes, Sir; and 

 have followed the seals all along the coasts of British Columbia to Behring Sea. 



4. Q. During last year, to your observation, were the seals as plentiful from the 

 coast of Shumagin Islands as they were the previous year? — A. I think there was 

 no material difference. 



5. Q. Did the seals last year appear to be frightened or more timorous than in pre- 

 vious years on account of the number of vessels? — A. I observed no material differ- 

 ence. 



6. Q. In shooting seals, what is your experience? — A. My experience is that unless 

 a seal is mortally wounded — hit in a vital spot — it is practically uninjured, and 

 appears to be as full of vitality as before it was shot. The shot- wounds will rapidly 

 close up, if not made in a vital part, and the seal will swim away as though nothing 

 had happened. The flow of blood stops very quickly, and the seal moves off at a very 

 rapid rate I picked shot from the bodies of seals, previously wounded in other than 

 a vital part, and the animal in every other way appeared to be in a healthy condition. 



7. Q. So you believe that a seal when shot, if not mortally wounded, does not 

 sink or seek a place — a rookery, or some place to die? — A. A wounded seal will not 

 alter its course in the slightest. It will go along the same as before, its wounds heal- 

 ing rapidly, very rapidly, too. It is astonishing how quickly such wounds will heal. 

 I once shot a seal which had been speared by Indians, and the spear had mado an 



