RESULTS. 195 



Under tlie circumstances, it is most difficult Percentage lost 



of those killed. 



to fix the actual number of seals destroyed and 

 not secured by hunters using fire arms; but 

 it is a conservative estimate to say that such 

 hunters lose at least two out of every three 

 seals shot by them. Charles Chalall, a seal 

 hunter, says: '^The average hunter would get 

 one out of every three seals shot; a poor hunter 

 not nearly so many."^ Thomas Gibson, a seal 

 hunter, or engaged in the sealing business, since 

 1881, says: "An ordinary hunter would not get 

 more than one out of every three or four tliat he 

 killed."^ Daniel McLean states ''that about one- 

 third are taken ;"^ and Capt. Martin Benson, of 

 the sealing schooner James G. Swan, says about 

 sixty-six per cent, are lost.^ These men are all 

 hunters of long experience, and their statements 

 are not only supported by many others,^ but 

 numerous witnesses give the number lost at a 

 much larger figure. E. W. Soron, mate of a 

 sealing vessel in 1888, says: "We only got 

 about one out of every five killed."^ Thomas 

 Brown (No. 1), a boat-puller for three years, 



1 Vol. II, p. 411. 



2 Vol. II, p. 432. 

 ' Vol. II, p. 443. 

 •"Vol. II, p. 405. 



■""Tliomas Lyons, Vol. II, p. 4G0; Bornliarflt Blcklner, Vol. II, p. 

 315 ; M. L. Washburne, Vol. II, p. 489 ; Martin Ilaunon, Vol. II, p. 445. 

 sVol. II, p. 479. 



