250 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



out of four breaching- seals that he kills; but an ordinary common 

 hunter like myself will sometimes use ten cartridges and not get one 

 seal. 1 can safely say that a common hunter will only get one seal out 

 of three. (Niles Kelson.) 



The white hunters who used guns in Bering Sea were banging away 

 at the seals sometimes all day long, and they would lose a great many 

 of those that they shot. I do not think that they brought to the 

 schooner one-half of those that they killed, to say nothing of those that 

 they wounded and got away. (Osly.) 



But since it has become the practice to hunt seals with guns a good 

 many are killed, wounded, and lost. Green hunters bang away and 

 wound more than they kill, and will shoot six or seven before they 

 .get one, and sometimes more. Good hunters will do much better. I 

 used to get most of the seals I killed, but I have killed live dead in 

 succession and lost the whole of them. (William Parker.) 



Shotgun is exclusively used by me for taking seals. Lose about 20 

 per cent of those killed with shotgun. (Abel llyan.) 



The captain, mate, and myself went out several times with the stern 

 boat and we killed 15 the first time we went out. I think we went out 

 that way three or four times, and we usually got one out of four killed. 

 I recollect one day when we were hunting, bad weather set up and we 

 did not get any seals. In good weather we got more seals than we did 

 in bad weather. (Peter Simes.) 



And we got one out of five killed. (John A. Swain.) 



On my first voyage I think we got two out of every five that we 

 killed. (Adolph W. Thompson.) 



When seal were struck with a spear none were lost; lose atfout 50 per 

 cent when killed with shotgun. (Charlie Tlaksatan.) 



I had in my employ men who are old seal hunters and who were for- 

 merly engaged in that business, and they have often told me that they 

 lost at least two out of every three they killed. (M. L. Washburn.) 



Percentage lost of seal x struck. 



The skill of the hunter has a great deal to do with the number of 

 seals secured of those killed or wounded, but the most expert does not 

 get more than half he hits, and the average tor hunters in general 

 would be about three in ten. (C. A. Abbey.) 



We secure one out of about every five that we shoot at or kill. 

 (Charles Adair.) 



An experienced hunter would get one out of every three that he shot 

 or killed, and a green hunter would get about one out of every seven or 

 eight that he shot or killed. (Charles Adair.) 



It has been my custom in the last few years to examine the logs of 

 sealing vessels and to converse with officers and hunters of such vessels 

 in order to obtain what information I could as to the methods employed 

 by hunters and the loss of seals occasioned in such pursuit. From the 

 logs I learned that in many instances 100 rounds of ammunition had 

 been fired to each skin secured, and often more; and on an average I 

 found that not over five seals to the hundred shots had been obtained. 

 The logs further showed that a large number had been wounded and 

 lost. I also ascertained from the logs and from conversation with 



