346 TESTIMONY 



Females taken ^^^ seals along tlie coast, all of wliicli were females 

 em es a en. excepting 20. We returned to Victoria in June. 



. In January, 1891, I left Victoria on a sealing voyage 



mnxe, . ^^ ^^^ scliooncr Minnie^ Dillon, master. We carried 



two boats manned by white men and ten canoes, each manned by two 

 Indians, who used shotguns. We captured 250 female 

 takenf^"* females gjj.^jg \f\t\i pup ou the coast and then returned to Vic- 

 toria, after which we sailed again in a short time on 

 the same vessel with the same crew for the North Pacific Ocean and 

 Bering Sea, capturing about 250 female seals while en route to the Bering 

 B in Sea ^^^ ^^^^ ^ ^^^ male yearlings. We entered the sea 

 n enng enng ea. ^^^ securcd about 10 scals, all of wliicli wcre females 

 in milk. After remaining there ten days we started back to Victoria. 

 The practice of taking seals in the water before they have given 

 to neces ^^^^^ **^ their young is destructive to seal life, waste- 

 sary!* *^'^ *°° neces- f^^-j r^^^j g]joukl be prohibited. Seals do not haul out 

 upon the laud along the coast and give birth to their 

 coSt°°* ^'^^^ ^^ °° young; nor do they breed on the kelp. If ever there 

 was such an occurrence it must have been a premature 

 birth caused by some accident to the female seal and would result in 

 the death of her young. 

 Previous to 1885 only two or three sealing vessels had ever gone to 

 the Bering Sea to hunt seals and the scaling from Vic- 

 f ■'^eri^'*^^*' sealing toria prior to 1886 was confined to the coast, and the 

 ormery. crcws wcrc Indians who hunted with spears. Seals 



w fiif were caught by them with spears and but few were 



lost ; but since the shotgun has come into use a great 

 many are destroyed and lost. 



C. Petekson. 

 Subscribed and sworn to before me on this 23rd day of April, A. D. 

 1892. 

 [SEAL.] Levi W. Myers, 



United States Consul, 



Deposition of Edwin P. Porter, sealer {ho at- steer er). 

 pelagic sealing. 



Dominion oe Canada, 



Victoria., B. C, ss : 



Edwin P. Porter, being duly sworn, deposes and says: My age is 25 



•ence years; residence, Victoria, British Columbia; occupa- 



rpenence. tion, scaman and seal-hunter. I went out sealing as 



Peneiope,is87. boat-stcercr on the British schooner Penelope, Captain 



Steel, master; I think it was in the year 1888 when I went in her. 



She had five boats and white hunters. They used 



ea ing o coas . g]jQtguns aud riflcs, shotguns chiefly. We left Victoria 



about the last of January and cruised along the California and Oregon 



Ent reciBerin Sea ^^^^^ ^^^ cauglit about 1,000 scals bcforc wc entered 



enng ea. ■gg^.jjjg. g^^^ y^^ entered the sea about the first week 



in July and caught about 1,100 more. We left the sea about the latter 



X)art of September. We caught some off the Copper Island, but most 



of t]iem were taken from 30 to 100 miles south and southwest of the 



Pribilof Islands. 



