TAKEN AT VICTOEIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA. 327 



T sailed again about Febrnaiy 12, 1802, iu the same vessel, and tlie 

 same master; we earned two boats, and tbree men to y^i;,,^^^;, igf,o 

 each boat; all white men in the boats, but we had six- 

 teen Indian canoes with two Indians in each canoe, and the Indians 

 used shoto-uns, but did not capture any seals, and returned to Victoria, 

 British Columbia, the 1st of April, and I was discharged at the custom- 

 house at Victoria, British Columbia. 



Seals were not as plentiful along the coast this year as they were in 

 1801. I think that for the proper preservation of the jjecrease 

 seals all pelagic hunting should be prohibited until the 

 mother seals have given birth to their young. gjy'°^"'"^°° °''^'^^- 



James Harrison. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 22d day of April, A. D. 1802. 

 [SEAL.f Levi W. Myers, 



United /States Consul. 



Deijosition of James HayKard, 'sealer (boat steercr). 



pelagic sealing. 



Province of British Columbia, 



City of Victoria^ ss : 



James Hayward, being duly sworn, deposes and says: My age is 32 

 years; I reside at Victoria, British Columbia; occupa- ^^ erience 

 tiou, seaman. I went on a sealing voyage in 1887 as ^penence. 

 boat steerer on the American schooner Vanderbilt, Capt. Myers,master. 

 She carried six boats, and white hunters, who used shot- yanderbu isst 

 guns and rifles. I joined her here with five others **" ^' ' '' 

 about the middle of May and sealed along the coast to Bering Sea, and 

 entered those waters in the fore part of July nnd was 

 ordered out of the sea by a revenue cutter, but ing sll™'^ °"* °^ ^'''■" 

 kept on sealing until September, and then returned to 

 Victoria, British Columbia. Our catch that year was 2,000, or there- 

 abouts. 



In 1888 I went in the American schooner Chas B. Wilson^ Turner, 

 master, as boat steerer, hunting otter and seals. She 

 carried four boats, with white hunters, and they used '^'^' ' ' *""' *" 

 shotguns and rifles. Left Victoria the 13th of May and went towards 

 the mouth of the Columbia Eiver and hunted along the coast to Shn- 

 magin Islands. We caught over 100 otters and a number of seals. 

 We did not go into the Bering Sea that year. In 1889 I did not go out 

 hunting. In 1890 I went in an American schooner (I can not give her 

 name) as boat steerer. She carried five boats and had white hunters, 

 who used both shotguns and rifles. Sailed from Victoria the latter 

 Ijart of April, and went over on the Eussian side of Bering Sea and 

 sealed in those waters and caught almost 1,800 seals that season, a part 

 of which we caught along the coast before we went into Bering Sea. 



In 1891 I went as boat steerer in the American schooner City of San 

 i><Vr/o, George Weston, master. She carried five boats, 

 and Avhite hunters, who used shotguns and rifles. We ^g^^'^ "■'' ''^"" ■"'^^''• 

 left Victoria in April and went to the mouth of the 

 Columbia River, but fished only one day and caught only one seal. 



