TAKEN AT VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA. 345 



Since tlie use of rifles and sliotguns have become common seals are 



mucli less in numbers and are more sby and timid. 



Tliey ougbt to be prohibited from killing seals in the sary?*^''*'*'" °^*'^" 



water for a few years at least, or there will not be 



enough left to make them worth liuuting. 



William Parker. 



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

 1892. 

 [SEAL.j Levi W. Myers, 



United States Consul. 



Deposition of Charles Peterson, sealer {hont-puller). 

 pelagic sealing. 



Province of British Columbia, 



City of Victoria, ss : 



Charles Peterson, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 36 years 

 old and am by occupation a seafaring man; my resi- ^^ eiience 

 dence is Victoria, British Columbia. In April, 1880, I xpeuence. 

 went seal hunting from Victoria in the schooner Monn- . 



tain Chief Jacobson, master. Our schooner carried isso!""'*"'" " 

 ten canoes, each manned by two Indians, who hunted 

 with spears. We began sealing off Cape Flattery and scaling off coast. 

 captured about 300 seals along the coast, most all of Females taken. 

 which were females and yearlings. We did not cap- 

 ture over 50 males, all told, on this voyage, and returned to Victoria in 

 July. 



In the spring of 1887 I went on a sealing voyage from Victoria, as a 

 boat-puller, in the schooner Alfred Adams. Dyi^e, mas- .,, , , , 



, -ic,, ' . , , , { -. . T T Alferd Adams, \?,?,1. 



ter. She carried one stern boat and two Indian canoes. 

 We had a white crew, but the canoes were manned by two Indians 

 each. We began sealing off Cai^e Flattery and sealed „ nno-off oa t 

 right up towards the Bering Sea, capturing 16 seals '^^^^^^ 

 along the coast, all of which were females with pup. Females taken. 

 We entered the Bering Sea about the IStli of August Entered Bering sca. 

 through the Unimak Pass and captured therein 1,404 Pi-ecrnant females 

 seals, most of which were cows in milk. On that voyage ^^'^'^^'^ *'™ 

 we caught female seals in milk over 80 miles from the rookeries, where 

 they had left their young. Onr best hunters would wasteofiife 

 secure half of the seals shot, but the poorest ones 

 would not get more than one out of twenty, the average being one 

 secured out of five killed. 



I have seen the deck almost flooded with milk while we were skin- 

 ning the seals. It is impossible to distinguish the male 

 seal from the female when they are in the water at a bieln wate"""""'"^'" 

 reasonable gunshot distance. About 90 per cent of 

 all the seals we captured in the water were female seals, ^.^^g*'*^ p"' ''°°* ^^ 

 After remaining in the sea about fifteen days our ves- 

 sel was seized and we returned to Victoria. ^f^&BQi seized. 



In April, 1890, I went sealing in the Minnie, Jacob- 

 son, master. She carried fourteen canoes, manned with ■''^"'"'^' i^^^- 

 Indians, two Indians with each canoe, who used spears. We caught 



