TAKEN AT VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA. 323 



gaff hook, bat could not save many that way. A good many are 

 wounded and escape only to die afterwards. 



Hunters talk about the seals increasing from year to j^^^^^^^^ 

 year, but I know they are decreasing, and if they keep 

 on killing them the way they do now there will not be any left in a few 

 years. 



his 



Alferd X Dardean. 



mark. 



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

 1S92. . 

 [SEAL.] Levi W. Myers, 



United States Consul. 



Experience. 



Deiiosition of George I) i show, scaler. 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



George Dishow, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I reside at Vic- 

 toria, British Columbia; am by occupation a seal 

 hunter; have been engaged in the business six years. 

 Was on the Triumiih, Favorite, Penelope, two seasons on the Umhrina, 

 and one season on the American schooner Walter Rich 

 hunting seal in the Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, and on the Eussian 

 side of the Bering Sea. First found and taken seal off 

 Cape Flattery in January and followed them up the ^'s™*^''°- 

 coast into Bering Sea, which they enter about June 20. I use a shot- 

 gun exclusively for taking seal. Old hunters lose but very few seal, 

 but beginners lose a great many. I use the Parker ^^^.g^ pi-ojiortion 

 shotgun. A large proportion of all seals taken are takeu^ females with 

 females with pup. A very few yearlings are taken. ^'"^' 

 Never examine them as to sex. But very few old bulls are taken , but five 

 being taken out of a total of 000 seals taken by my 

 schooner. Use no discrimination in killing seal, but .^ indiscrimimite km- 

 shoot everything that comes near the boat in shape of "' 

 a seal. Hunters shoot seal in the most exposed part of wftcriioT*any°vhere 

 the body. Have never known any pups to be born in outside Priwiof isi- 

 the water, nor on the land on the coast of Alaska any- ^'^^^' 

 where outside of the Pribilof Islands. Have never known fur seal to 

 haul up on the land anywhere on the coast except on ^^^^ s i, i 

 the Pribilof Islands. Most of the seals taken in Ber- haurup*'on laud ex- 

 ing Sea are females. Have taken them 70 miles from 1X^3°° Pribilof is- 

 the islands that were full of milk. I think a closed 

 season should be established for breeding seal from Jan- esS^y"'^ '"'''■"'" """' 

 uary 1st to August loth in the North Pacific Ocean and 

 Bering Sea. 



George Disnow. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 1st day of May, 1S92, 



A. W. Lavender, 

 United States Treasury Agent. 



