TAKEN AT VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA. 321 



Deposition of Louis Culler, sealer {hoat-puller). 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



City of Victoria, ss: 



Louis Culler, being duly sworn, deposes aud says: I am 28 years old, 

 aud reside at Port Towusend, State of Wasbiugton. I ^^ ,erieuce 

 am by. occupation a civil engineer. In 1888 1 sbipped ^p«^"euce. 

 at Victoria, Britisb Columbia, as a boat-puller on the q^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^ 

 sealing scliooner Oscar and Hattie, Gault, master. i838. 

 She carried seven boats, eacli being manned by three white men, 

 who used shotguns. We sealed along the coast from Cape Flattery up 

 to the passes leading into Bering Sea, capturing about 

 1,400 seals before entering the sea. We entered the sea ^''*''^ "^ '°'''*- 

 through the Unamak Pass, and captured seals therein. Entered Bering sea. 

 after which we returned to Victoria. In 1889 I shipped 

 at Victoria as a hunter on the sealing schooner 

 Maggie Mac. She carried seven boats, each manned Maggie Mac, issd. 

 by "thre.e white men, who used shotguns in hunting the 

 seals. We sealed along the coast from Cape Flattery up to the Aleu- 

 tian Islands, and captured 340 seals before entering 

 Bering Sea. We caught more seals in the sea that '°^''*- 



year than we captured before entering therein. After Entered BeringSea. 

 sealing there awhile we returned to Victoria. In June, 

 1891, 1 shipped as a hunter on the sealing schooner Otto, ^^^^ ^g^^ 

 Eiley, master. There were two newspaper correspond- 

 ents aboard. King Hale, representing the New York Herald, and Mr. 

 McManns, of Victoria. The Otto carried three sealing boats, each 

 manned by w^hite men, who used shotguns, and two canoes, manned 

 by Indians, who used spears. We sailed up along the coast toward 

 Bering Sea and captured five seals, all being gravid 

 females. I noticed these seals particularly, because n^Tftml\e^^' ^''"°" 

 there were but few of them. I kept a memorandum of 

 the transactions of the voyage, and noted in my book the number of 

 seals taken and their sex. We entered the sea through 

 the Unamak Pass, and captured therein about 40 seals, nmsing c^ows""^^''^' 

 most all of which had milk in their breasts. After 

 taking these seals we returned to Victoria, British Columbia, about the 

 25th of September. 



My observation of the seal-hunting by white hunters in 1888 is that 

 they do not secure more than 2 or 3 out of every 

 100 shot. The number of shots fired by a hunter g^^^]f ^ p^^ ''e^* 

 iu an ordinary day's sealing is something enormous, 

 and the waste of seal life in the water is dreadful to waste of life. 

 contemplate. My observations and experience in 1889 

 were about the same as in the previous year, except as to the number of 

 seals seen, which was much smaller. There was a percep- 

 tible decrease in the number of seals seen by me in the ^'^^'^-''so- 

 year 1889 as compared with the year 1888. The proportion of loss of 

 seals shot by white hunters in the Otto was quite as great in 1891 as 

 by the hunters in tlie year before stated. I have never seen any black 

 pups in the North Pacflc Ocean. The seals do not give 

 birth to their young in the water, nor upon tlie kelp, offeror on keip" '° 

 If the present practice of seal-hunting be continued, it 

 2716— VOL II 21 



