186 TESTIMONY 



ami from Victoria, Biitisli Columbia, in latitude 55° 45' north and lon- 

 gitude 168° 25' west. The two boats seized belonged to tlie Thornton. 



The same evening seized the schooner Carolena, of Vic- 



caroz««a seized 188C. ^^^^-.^^ British Columbia, in about the same locality. 



Half an hour later seized fonr boats belonging to the Carolena with dead 



seals on board. That night spoke schooner Twilujlit, 

 Twilight svo-^^n^m. ^^^^jj^g.^ y^^^^ ^^^ captaiu Stated they had taken no seals 

 in Bering Sea, and on account of the schooners I had in tow I was 

 unable to overhaul her. 



The next morning at 4:10 sighted a schooner, evidently a sealer, but 

 was unable to pursue her, owing to the fact of having the Thornton and 

 Carolena in tow. At 4:40 a. m. spoke the schooner Omvard, of Vic- 

 toria, British Columbia, in latitude 55° 10' north and 

 onw-ard seized, 1886. lougitudc 167° 40' wcst. The uiastcr acknowledged 



he had been sealing in Bering Sea. Boarding her and 

 tinding seal skins and unskinned dead seals on board, I seized her and 

 took her also in tow. At 7 :20 a. m. sighted another schooner, but she 

 fled, and outsailed us. At 11 a. m., sighted a schooner under shortened 

 sail. She at once changed her course and made all sail southeast and 



escaped. Beached Unalaska that night. The Thornton 

 ^^weapoiis seized, -^r^f[ on boaxd four rifles and six shotguns; the Onward, 



one rifle and thirteen shotguns; the Carolena, four 

 rifles, one musket, and five shotguns. Altogether, the vessels I seized 



had over 2,000 seal skins. My orders made no dis- 



skins seized. tiuctiou as to scizing English or American vessels, and 



each vessel seized received the same treatment without relation to the 



nationality of its crew or owner. Fogs are almost 

 Weather. coustaut iu Bciiug Sca in the summer time. During 



the fifty-eight days I cruised in those waters fifty-four days were foggy 

 or rainy, the other four days being partly clear. On this account it is 

 most difficult to seize vessels in Bering Sea. The reports of the guns 

 of the hunters might often be heard when no vessel could be seen. 



For fifteen or twenty days at a time I did not see the sun, and never 

 while in Bering Sea did I see a star, the night being continually over- 

 cast or foggy. Our position was in nearly all cases determined by dead 

 reckoning or bearing of the land. The following statements here made 

 in relation to open-sea sealing are based upon my own observation, and 

 also upon information I received from conversations with forty or fifty 



men engaged in open-sea sealing in Bering Sea. The 

 Schooners, size of, avcragc sizc of the scalhig vcsscls is from 25 to 50 tons, 



and the number of the crew varies from 10 to 20 or 

 25. A vessel is fitted out with about 4 to 6 boats, or 6 or 8 canoes. 

 The white hunters used either a Winchester lifle or a double-barreled 

 shotgun, and a gaft' with a shaft 4 or 5 feet long. The Indians use a 



toggle-headed spear, with a shaft 7 or 8 feet in length, 

 e agio sea ing. ^^ch boat has a rower and one or two hunters, and is 

 also provided with a compass, small amount of provisions, ammunition 

 locker, seal knives, and a short club. The boats, on being lowered from 

 the vessel, provided the water is fairly smooth, go toward all i)oints of 

 the compass, and 1 have found them as far as 6 miles from the 

 schooner. 



The white hunter in a boat, when a seal appears on the surface, if 



within 50 yards, fires at it. If killed outright, the seal 



Waste of life. immediately sinks, and the boat is rowed for the place 



where it sank ; but I do not think they recover many seals thus killed, and 



every sealer stated that they seldom expected to get a seal when killed 



