TAKEN AT VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA. , 335 



her. The year I was od the Favorite she carried In- 

 dian hunters also, who used spears. It is noAv the mB^ri^ s;f in'is Ji'^ 

 l)ractice to hunt along the coast early in the season 

 from the Columbia Eiver to the Bering- Sea, and enter 

 those waters the fore part of July. Indian hunters will BeTh^ sel. ^''*''""- 

 not stay out over ten days at a time when we are on 

 the coast, so we have to come in and out quite often. This year I 

 have changed my crew to white hunters, who use shotguns and rifles. 

 When in Ijering Sea we are usually from 50 to 150 

 miles from the Pribilof Islands. I did not pay any Hunt in Bering sea 

 particular attention to the sex of the seals we caught from the islands"" ^* 

 on the coast or in the sea any further than we got a 

 number of the yearlings and 2-year-olds on the coast, and that I have 

 seen young live pups cut out of tlieu- dead mothers and they would 

 walk around on deck and bleat for three or four days, and then die of 

 starvation. In the Bering Sea I have noticed that in 

 skinning seals milk would run out of the teats of fe- . Have caught nurs- 

 males who had given birth recently to their young on miles 'from islands. 

 the islands. I have caught this class of females from 

 75 to 100 miles from the Pribilof Islands. 



I know of no place along the eastern coast where fur-seals haul out 

 on land, and I do not believe there is any outside of the 

 Pribilof Islands. Fur-seals do not give birth to their ti,f Sli^Z ""^^ *"' 

 young in the water, neither will the pup seal live if 

 born in the water. I can not say as to seals appearing ^''* ^°™ '° '^^*'''- 

 off the coast in less numbers each year, but I think Protection by a 



,, 111 J ty ,^ ■ ± J.- close season neces- 



some arrangement should be made for their protection sary. 

 by a closed sc^asoii daring the time they are carrying 

 and nursing their young. 



Andrew Laing. 



Sul)scribed and sworn to before me on this 23d day of April, A. D. 

 1892. 

 [l. s.] Levi W. Myers, 



United States Consul. 



Deposition of E</hert H. McManus, newspaper correspondent. 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



The undersigned, Eobert H. McManus, of the city of Victoria, Prov- 

 ince of British Columbia, Dominion of Canada, being . ' 

 duly sworn, saith: I am about 19 years of age, and ^pe"eMe. 

 liave for some years past followed the calling of newspaper corre- 

 spondent and writer. In 1889, at the time the British sealing schooners 

 were seized in the Bering Sea by the United States revenue cutters, I 

 devoted some attention to the sealing industry. Being acquainted 

 witli Mr. Walter Bonis, through his being a boarder in my family, 

 and who is largely identified with the sealing industry, I was by him 

 earnestlj^ solicited to a(;eompany him on a sealing cruise on board his 

 schooner Otto last season. Some time previously I had a severe attack 

 of rheumatic gout, aiid was at the time of solicitation by Mr. Borns 

 partially convalescent. I was advised that the voyage would tend 

 towards the recovery of my health and the inducement of an opportunity 



