286 EXTRACTS FROM VARIOUS PUBLICATIONS. 



added to the amount sold by the Indians to traders, independent of 

 the schooners, 1,558 skins, makes a total of 4,698 skins, for which they 

 received from the traders, in cash and trade, an average of $9 per skin, 

 equal to $42,282. This sum divided among two hundred and thirty- 

 two Indians, the whole number who were engaged in sealing during 

 the season, gives a little over $182 to each Indian for his six months' 

 work. 



The total value of the fur-seal catch of 6,268 skins reported at Neah 

 Bay, as taken by the Indians of the Makah Reservation, at $9 each, is 

 $56,412. 



This shows the value and importance of one of the interests of Wash- 

 ington Territory of which hitherto but little has been known, it being 

 evidently for the pecuniary advantage of the very few persons who 

 have engaged in it to keep the public in the dark as much as possible 

 regarding its extent and value. This season, however, has shown an 

 increase of the vessels employed, and it is more than probable that the 

 number will be increased another season. The unprecedented number 

 of seals which made their appearance, a number which seems to have 

 steadily increased each season siuce 1866, will give employment to a 

 larger fleet of vessels another year. One of the captains remarked to 

 me, " If a hundred schooners could have obtained crews of Indians, there 

 were more than enough seals to have satisfied them all." 



EXTRACT PROM THE TESTIMONY GIVEN BY JAMES G. SWAN 

 BEFORE A COMMITTEE OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 1 



By Senator Allison : 



Q. I want to get at your general idea of the treatment of seals and 

 the fisheries as a whole question. You thiDk there is an exhaustless 

 supply of fish here, and that the number of seals is not diminished, and 

 yet the seals feed on the fish ? — A. So far as the salmon go, they have 

 diminished them, no doubt about that at the Columbia River; they 

 have been very destructive this year. They have destroyed the nets, 

 and not only seals have done that, but sea-lions and all animals that 

 make fish their food. 



Q. You think they ought to be killed before they reach the mouth of 

 the Columbia 1 ?— A. I think they ought to be killed off the coast of 

 California. 



By Senator Dolph : 



Q. Do you think that they would have made much of an impression 

 upon the salmon at the mouth of the Columbia if it had not been for 

 the fishermen and their nets, and traps, and pounds? — A. I don't know 

 that they would ; but at the same time I don't see why they should be 

 preserved, unless it is the fashion. 



Q. If a seal is shot with a rifle, wounded and not killed, what does it 

 do ? — A. I suppose it goes off. 



Q. Does it dive or sink? — A. I think it dives. 



Q. Then we must charge to the wanton destruction of seals all that 

 are shot in the water and not killed at the first shot; they escape cap- 

 ture, do they not"? — A. Yes, sir. 



Q. Have you any idea about the proportion that would be wounded 



1 Senate Report, No. 1530, part I, Fifty-first Congress, first session, pp. 288 to T90. 



