TAKEN IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON. 361 



is sure to be captured. Should the seal be only wounded, he will dive, 

 unless hit in the flipper or nose. If he is not killed so dead as to be 

 unable to dive, ten to one he will get away, for it is uncertain where 

 he will come up, and the boat may be a long way from him when he 

 reappears. In such case the boat usually remains still, with boat puller 

 and steerer standing ready to follow him as soon as he is seen; but he 

 very often rises out of range and gets away. An experienced hunter 

 and boat's crew will get at least seventy-five per cent of "sleepers" and 

 perhaps more; but the sleepers form but a small part of the seals hunted. 

 The noise of firearms will awaken every seal within the distance of half 

 a mile, and i)ut it on the alert. The boats stay out until dark, if the 

 weather is fine, and the five or six usually carried by a sealing vessel 

 cover an area of five or ten miles on either side. 



If the seal is " finniug " the hunter will probably spend ten or a 

 dozen rounds of ammunition, provided he wounds it ..j.iimiu^-gg.^ig 

 with his first shot before he takes it in, which he often ""^"^ 



fails to do. If it is " breaching"— that is, jumping clear .. ureachin- - seals 

 of the water — the huuter will most likely try a pfle-shot 

 at it, as there is a bare chance that he may hit it. If he wounds it and it 

 escapes it is all the same to him, except that he has oue less skin. 



To be a good hunter a man must be a crack shot on the start, and 

 then it will take him at least two seasons to learn the 

 motions of the seal, so as to be considered an expert, ti of!'^' quahiica- 

 He must understand how to approach the seals under 

 all circumstances so as not to arouse them, and must also have a good 

 boat steerer, as a great deal depends on him. Perfect quiet must be 

 kept in the boat, or the seal will be awakened; and the boat steerer 

 must understand the seal's habits as well as the hunter, in order t<:» 

 know where to head his boat and where to keep her. A crew new to 

 the business sometimes makes a good catch, but it is generally at the 

 expense of a large proportion of seals that are killed and lost, or 

 wounded and escape. The vessels engaged in the sealing fleet: sizec* 

 sealing business range from 15 to 150 tons burden, or veseis aud equipmeu', 

 more, large vessels being in favor because they can *^**''®**^- 

 carry more boats, with less expense in proportion to size, than the 

 small ones. 



The principal ports from which sealing vessels sail are Victoria, 

 British Columbia, vSan Francisco, Cal.,Port Towusend, 

 Wash., and Yokohama, Japan. The fleet from Vic- ^^f""^^ po^ts of ves- 

 toria comprises sixty vessels or more, and one will 

 travel the world over without finding better or faster schooners than 

 some of them are. Next to Victoria in numbers comes San Francisco, 

 all under the American flag. Yokohama formerly sent out twelve or 

 thirteen vessels under diflerent flags. I have seen vessels operating 

 from that port flying the Dutch, German, French, Russian, American, 

 English, and Japanese flags, engaged at otter and seal hunting. About 

 seven or eight vessels are from Puget Sound. The Victoria and Paget 

 Sound fleet attends only to sealing, while the vessels from San Fran- 

 cisco and Yokohama engage in otter-hunting and sealing combined. The 

 vessels carry from one to seven boats each, and each boat except the one 

 carried at the stern is manned by three men. In going upon the hunt 

 the hunter stands forward, the boat puller sits in the center of the boat, 

 and the boat steerer in the stern. The boats are from 18 to 20 feet 

 long and carry usually two pairs of oars, three or more paddles, a short 

 seal-club to kill the seal with (if he is alive when they get him along- 

 side), a gaflt' with a long staff to hook him up if he sinks, a fog horn, a 



