298 TESTIMONY 



year for a long time. The seal first coine into Dixoiis Entrance in March. 

 Mionition "^^^^ weather is bad during- that month, and I do not hunt 



'^ ' ' ' them in canoes. Tlie seal are constantly on the move 



nortb. Have al\A^ays used siDear and shotgun for taking seal. None I lost 

 when I used spear. About 20 per cent are lost wlien 

 ^ o,R.-i>au- cows with i^yigj ^^.^^^ shotgun. Abouthalf the seals taken by me are 

 cows with pup. I liave taken a few old bulls in my life, 

 but not many. Have taken quite a number of yearlings. The male seals 

 taken are between two and three years old. The sex of the seal can not 

 be told in the water. Hunters use no discrimination, 

 _^indiscrimiuate kill- ^^^^ j.q^ everything they can. When I was a young 

 man seal were very plentiful off Prince of Wales 

 Island and Dixons Entrance, but since the schooners have begun hunt- 

 Decrease. ^^S seal they have become very scarce, and Indians 

 now are obliged to go a long ways to kill any, and 

 sometimes they will hunt for days without getting a seal. I have never 

 , „ie ijirtii known any pups to be born in the water or on the land 

 opeagu ir . auywhcrc around this part of Alaska or in British 

 Do not haul upou Columbia. Have never known any fur-seal to haul up 

 *'°"''^' on the land anywhere in British Columbia or Alaska. 

 I think that all sealing should be stopped for a number of years, so that 

 „ , ,. the seal can become ])lenty again, for the white man 

 has almost exterminated the seal. 



Nashtou (his x mark). 

 Witness to his mark: 

 J. M. Potter. 

 A. W. Lavender. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 11th day of May, 1S92. 



A. W. Lavender, 

 United IStates Treasury Agent. 



Bepofiitioii of Smith Ifutch, sealer. 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



Smith Natch, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I was born at 

 Kas aan and have lived there all my life, and am now a 

 Exporieuce. vcry old mail, about 80 years old. Have been a hunter 



all my life. Have hunted fur-seal every season for a 

 great many years in Dixons Entrance. When I was a small boy fur- 

 seal used to come into Clarence Straits, but it has been a good many 

 years now since any fur-seal have seen there. Always hunted fur-seal 

 between March and June. They make their appear- 

 igia ion. ^^^^^ ^^^ March in Dixons Entrance, but at that time 



of the year the weather is so bad we can't hunt them. May is the best 

 time to hunt them, because the weather is always good. They all dis- 

 appear in June and go north up the coast — I think, to have their pups. 

 When I was a boy I used a shotgun for taking seal, bought from the 

 Hudson Bay Company at Fort Simi)Son, and have always used a shot- 

 gun for sealing. I think about two out often seal shot 

 n.aies wSh pup!'^ ^''' ^^^^^ ^^^^- ^ ^^^^^^^ ^bout half tlic scals killed by me are 

 females with pup. I think there are a few more males 

 killeil in April than iemales, but in May there are more females killed. 

 I can not tell a male from a female in the water, and it makes no differ- 

 ence; I shoot everything that comes near the canoe in 

 _^ii.disciimmate kill- gijape of a scal. Since the white men with schooners 

 began to hunt seal, the last five or six years, seals have 



