TAKEN AT VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA. 317 



Deposition of Senry Brown, sealer (boat puller), 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



Province of British Columbia, 



City of Victoria, ss : 



Henry Brown, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 42 years of 

 age, and reside in Victoria, British Columbia. I am 

 by occupation a seaman. On or about February 21, Experience. 

 1890, I shipped as an able seaman, but did service as 

 a boat steerer on the sealing schooner Minnie, which Minnie, isoo. 

 cleared from Victoria. She carried twelve canoes 

 and a stern boat. Each canoe was manned by two Indians, who used 

 spears principally. The stern boat was manned by white men, who 

 used rifles and shotguns, principally shotguns. I acted as steererman 

 in the stern boat. We hunted seals all along the coast from Grays 

 Harbor to the passes leading into Bering Sea. The ^ earance off 

 first seals seen were about 30 miles south and west of coa^t?^^^^^^^ 

 Cape Flattery. We then followed the herd north- catch off coast. 

 ward, capturing about 1,000 seals on the coast, which 

 we transferred to the American steam schooner i¥*s- Transfer of cargo to 

 cMef at sea, about 15 miles from Sand Point. We then schooner Mischief. 

 proceeded to the Bering Sea, entering through the 

 UnamakPass about the middle of July. We captured ^^^^j^^ ^^^' *""® "^ 

 over 1,200 seals, all the way from 24 to 100 miles away 

 from the Pribilof Islands. We then returned to Sand ai^tttoo^uea SoS 

 Point, and arrived back at Victoria about the last of islands. 

 November. 



On January 19, 1891, I shipped at Victoria as an able seaman, and 

 took the boat steerer's billet on the sealing schooner j^^^^^^^ ^ggj 

 Mascot, Lawrence, master. She carried one stern 

 boat and ten canoes. The canoes were manned by Indians, who used 

 spears in hunting the seals, and the stern boat, in which I was steerer, 

 was manned by three white men. The hunter used a shotgun. We 

 sealed all along the coast from Cape Flattery up to Cape Cook, on Van- 

 couver Island, and captured 9 seals. The only one ^^^^^ 

 taken by the stern boat was a female with a pup in 

 her. The pup was thrown into the ocean. On the 22d of May we 

 arrived back in Victoria. 



On the 25th of February, 1892, I shipped at Victoria, British Colum- 

 bia, on the sealing schooner May Belle, Smith, master. May Beiie,ii,n. 

 I shipped as an able seaman and did service in the 

 stern boat as boat steerer. She also carried ten canoes, each being manned 

 by two Indians, who used the spear in hunting. We sealed along the 

 coast from Destruction Island as far north as Triangle ^.^^j^ 

 Island, off the Vancouver shore, and captured but one 

 female seal. On the 18th of April I left the May Belle at Clayaquot 

 Sound, and returned to Victoria on the 5th of May on the steam schooner 

 Maud. 



The seal captured by us along the coast in 1890 were aU gravid 

 females. I do not know the sex of those taken by our „ ^ . ^ . ^on^ 



T T XI 1. • J.1 A. TTTT TT , "^ J Coast catch m 1890. 



Indians on the coast m that year. We did not capture Pregnant cows. 



any gravid seals in the Bering Sea. Nearly all the Nearly aU taken m 



seals taken in Bering Sea were cows in milk. We Bering sea nursing, 



captured a few young seals in the sea of both sexes. w^st®<»^^®- 



