TAKEN ON VANCOUVER ISLAND. 309 



100 natives in this village. He is also agent for five sealing vessels 

 owned in Victoria. 



his 



John x Margathe. 



mark. 



Attest: 



E. T. WiTHERSPOON. 



Harry George. 



Sworn to and subscribed before me tbis 21st day of April, 1892, and 

 I further certify that the foregoing affidavit was read to John Mar- 

 gathe and that he fully understood the same. 

 [L. s.] Oliver Wood, 



United States Commissioner for the District of 



Washington, residing at Port Townsend. 



Bejiosition of Moses, Nitnat Indian sealer. 

 pelagic sealing. 



State of Washington, 



County of Clallam, ss : 



Moses, being duly sworn, deposes and says : I am a native Nitnat 

 Indian, and reside at Pachenah Bay on Vancouver 

 Island, at Vancouver, British Columbia. I am 50 years Experience. 

 old, and am by occupation a hunter and fisherman, and 

 have been so engaged for about thirty years. I have sealed out from 

 Neah Bay in the seaUng schooner G. G. Perlcins (that 

 was last year), and this year I am sealing on the c. a PerA-ms, mi. 

 shooner James G. Swan. Formerly I sealed out of 

 Pachenah Bay with my tribe in canoes. We used to i^'' ^- '^"'""' 

 seal m the straits of San Juan de Fuca, and all along 

 the coast from the Columbia River to the upper end of Vancouver 

 Island. I am familiar with all the bays and inlets on the west coast of 

 Vancouver Island. I do not know of any place along 

 the coast where seals haul out upon the land and give ^^^^^°^ ^'^^^ "p °^ 

 birth to their young; nor have I heard the Indians on 

 the Vancouver Island talk about any such a thing. Seals do not give 

 birth to their young in the water nor on the kelp. Years ago seals 

 were much more plentiful than they are now, and I could see them all 

 around in bunches on the water, but since the white man came here 

 and commenced to kill them with the rifle and the 

 shotgun, within the last five or six years, they have ^^'^^^^®- 

 rapidly decreased in number. 



Ten years ago a British schooner came up to J'achenah Bay to get 

 Indian hunters, and schooners have been coming in there for that jjur- 

 pose every season since, increasing in number year by year until now 

 there are nearly one hundred sealing schooners engaged 

 in hunting seals along the coast. About seven years fleet"^'*^^ "^ sealing 

 ago they commenced to hunt seals with rifles, and lately 

 they use shotguns. Very few Indians that go from Pachenah or Neah 

 Bay use guns. In hunting with the spear we make but little noise and 



