TAKEN AT VICTORIA, BEITISH COLUMBIA. 315 



shipped on the schooner Challenge, Jones, master, as 

 boat-puller. She carried four boats and three men to sei^ed"*"^*' ■^^^^' 

 each boat, all white men, who nsed shotguns in hunt- 

 ing- the seals. We left Port Townseud in May and sealed south to 

 Cape Flattery and then went north along the coast until we came to 

 Uniinak Pass, and captured from three to four hundred seals. Most all 

 were females and had pups in them. I think fully two-thirds of all 

 we caught were females, and a few were bulls. On an 

 average we saved one out of three that were killed, caulh't!^^'^^'"'''^'''"^ 

 We were seized in the Unimak Pass and taken to Una- 

 laska and all the skins were taken away from us. The vessel was re- 

 leased and we returned to Seattle the latter part of September. We 

 tried to shoot the seals in the head or heart, for if we shot them in any 

 other place we would lose them, and if we killed them dead they 

 would sink and many of them we could not get. 



In January, 1889, I again shipped from Victoria, British Columbia, 

 in the schooner Walter Rich, Siewart, master; we car- j?- 7, i s 



ried 6 boats and 1 stern boat, 3 men to each boat, all * ^'^ '" ' ^'^' 

 white men, who used rifles and shotguns. We always tried to slip 

 up on them and shoot them while they were asleep. 

 We secured 500 skins along the coast, most all of which prfncK^ taker'®' 

 were pregnant females, and returned to Victoria the 

 latter part Of April. There is no place on the coast 

 where the seals haul up on the land and give birth to P^bnof Slnds!^ "° 

 their young, nor do they ever give birth to their young 

 on the kelp. It is almost impossible to distinguish the female seals 

 from the male in the water, unless it is an old bull. I don't think it is 

 right to kill the mother seal before they give birth to their young, for 

 it is a fact that when you kill the mother you also kill 

 her pup. I don't think the seals are as plentiful as 

 they were last year, and the hunting of them should be sary!'^'^'""'^ "®''®'' 

 stopped in the ii^orth Pacitic Ocean. 



Bernhd. Bleidner. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me on this 22d day of April, A. D 

 1892. 

 [seal.] Levi W. Myers, 



United States Consul, 



Deposition of Niels Bonds, sealer (mate). 



pelagic sealing. 



Province of British Columbia, 



City of Victoria, ss : 

 Mels Bonde, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 24 years ot 

 age; residence, Victoria, British Columbia; occupation, 

 seaman. I went sealing as deck hand in the British Experience. 

 schooner Kate, Capt. Moss, master, in 1887. We had ^^^^ jgg^ 

 twenty canoes and Indian hunters who used spears, 

 except in calm weather, when they would use shotguns. We sailed 

 from Victoria the 15th of March, sealing off Barclay Sound, between 

 there and Cape Cook, and caught 522 seals. Came back to Victoria in 

 May, discharged our skins and then went to Bering- 

 Sea, arriving there in July. We came out of the Bering Benng sea. 



