300 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



3. Q. The inquiry, Caiitain Cox, is to elicit, first, the number of seals lost by being 

 hit. It is alleyod that you lose a large proportiou of those that are shot, and we 

 wish to get at the facts. Also to establish the number of females caught during the 

 last and previous years, and also to investigate if there were any Canadian sealers 

 raiding the seal islands. In the spring of the year, when you leave port^, you go 

 down to meet the seals along the coast? — A. Yes. 



4. Q. I have been given to understand that the seals travel in bands? — A. Yes; all 

 the cows together, and all the bulls together, and the grey pups together. 



5. Q. I suppose they are quite distinctly separated? — A. Yes; we get the grey 

 pups closer to shore, always inside of the large seals. 



6. Q. As a matter of factyou do not find many female seals bearing young travel- 

 ling with the bull seals? — A. I have never seen them in company together. I have 

 found the barren cows and bulls in company. 



7. Q. This separation is from natural selection, or instinct? — A. Yes; while carry- 

 ing their young they are never found with the bulls. The barren cows occasionally 

 do travel with the bulls. 



8. Q. During what months have you found more females carrying young as com- 

 pared with other mouths of the sealing season? — A. In the winter, when we first go 



out — February, March, and April. 

 225 9. Q. That is, both bearing cows and barren cows, too? — A. No; bearing 



cows. There are also grey pups about at that time. 



10. Q. What do you mean by '' grey pups"? — A. The yearling seal. After that it 

 is called a "brown pup," then a ''two-year-old." 



11. Q. Along the coast, from the time you strike them in the spring, do you shoot 

 the larger proportion of the seals sleeping, or are there more shot while travel- 

 ling? — A. Yes ; the larger portion of the seals killed during the season are shot while 

 sleeping. 



12. Q. You say you find the bearing cows travelling continually? — A. If the 

 weather is rough, they are travelling, but if fine, they are usually seen sleeping or 

 resting. 



13. Q. Is it a fact that the females with young swim low down in the waterf — 

 A. Yes ; the bulls and barren cows keep their heads well up, looking around. 



14. Q. When you come upon a group of seals, your catch, then, will depend upon 

 whether the group is composed of males or females? — A. Yes; very much. 



15. Q. As a matter of experience. Captain Cox, have you come upon more groups 

 of males than of females during the last year, say? — A. I have caught more bulls 

 the last season — a great deal more. I had 848 seals coming up the coast before enter- 

 ing Behring Sea, and of these about 75 per cent, would be males. 



16. Q. Have you any private opinion as to the reason of this preponderance of the 

 males last year as compared with previous years? — A. 1 cannot account for it. In 

 fact, I could hardly advance any idea of the cause. I get the most of them from 

 Queen Charlotte Island coast northwards. 



17. Q. You think, though, with some of the other sealers, that at about May the 

 cows are well in advance, going to Behring Sea, to the breeding grounds, consequently 

 the males would be left behind ?— A. That is the only reason 1 can see for it, because 

 ■we get very few females " with pup" in May. 



18. Q. What do you consider » sufficient shooting distance, that is, sufficiently 

 close range for sleeping seals? — A. A great many are shot inside of 15 yards. I think 

 about 15 yards. 



19. Q. As a professional sealer, what is your honest and candid opinion about the 

 percentage of seals lost, that is, the number lost after being hit— those that sink? — 

 A. With'the Indian hunters it would not amount to one in a hundred. They kill 

 with the spear, and I know it would not amount to 1 per cent. 1 was only one sea- 

 son with Indian hunters. Last year I had Whites. I do not think the loss would 

 be more than 4 or 5 per cent, with shooting by the white hunters. 



20. Q. The spear of the Indian sealer is barbed, is it not, and fastens in the ani- 

 mal?— A. Yes, it has two barbs and a line attached, so that they are sure of their 

 seal unless their line breaks, or the spear is not stuck in far enough to hold, neither 

 of which happens often, 



21. Q. You can quite confidently state that the loss of seals killed by white hunters 

 would not exceed 4 or 5 per cent. ?— A. I can. 



22. Q. This you base upon your own personal knowledge ? — A. Yes. 



23. Q. How many of a crew do you carry on your vessel? — A. Six boats, that is, 

 six hunting boats and a stern boat; seven in all. 



24. Q. Your ship's company would be how many? — A. Twenty-three men. 



25. Q. And the number of hunters ?— A. Six hunters, or, counting the stern boat, 

 seven hunters. 



26. Q. Your catch last year was how many skins? — A. On the coast 848 skins. 



27. Q. Of that number how many would be breeding seals?— A. I do not think 

 there would be more than 15 per cent. — about 126 female skins. 



