TESTIMONY TAKEN AMONG THE MAKAH INDIANS. 377 



seals out in tlie sea, and they lose a great many more than they get, 

 and we sometimes cai)ture some of those that they have badly wounded. 



BowA-CHUP (his X mark). 

 Witnesses : 



John P. McGlinn. 

 C. E. Gay. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me on this 27th day of April, A. 1). 

 1892. 

 [SEAL.] Clarence P. Brown, 



Notary Public in and for the State of Washinyton. 



Dejjosition of Feter Broum, Mahah Indian chief scaler {master). 

 pelagic sealing. 



State of Washington, 



Coimty of Clallam, ss: 



Peter Brown, beiug duly sworn, deposes ami says: I am the native 

 chief of the Makah Indians; am about 55 years old, and reside on the 

 Neah Bay Eeservation, in the County of Clallam and State of Wash- 

 ington, United States of America. 1 am acquainted with the habits of 

 my people and the methods adopted by them in liunting 

 the fur-seal. I am the master and one-third owner of ExpS.™."*^'''^'" 

 the fishing schooner James G. Sivan. I have been en- 

 gaged in hunting seals with speais, more or less, all of my life. For- 

 merly, in the winter time, used to hunt them in the Straits of San J;i.an 

 de Fuca, and in the si)ring and summer time Ave hunted them in canoes 

 and with spears from 10 to 30 miles off and around Cape Flattery. 

 About ten or twelve years ago we commenced carrying our canoes on 

 little schooners and followed up along the coast towards Kadiak. I 

 have been a part owner in a schooner tor about seven years, and have 

 owned the James G. iSivait for about three years. She 

 is about 59 tons burden. The other schooner was not 

 so large. My people commenced using guns in seal- pireamia re )i i 

 hunting about three years ago, but they always carried spears?" Tssq?' ^^^^^ 

 spears, and but few of them ever use guns unless em- 

 ployed to do so by white men. About six or seven 

 years ago I commenced to notice a decrease in thenum- Decrease. 

 berof seals arriving in the straits and around the cape. 



I think more than one-lialf of all the seals caught on the coast are 

 cows that liave pups in them. Cows caught in the lat- 

 ter part of May and June have black pups in them, ^.^^3^"''^"'°""°*^^ 

 which we sometimes cut out and skin. 1 hunted in 

 Bering Sea in 1889 (that being the only year I ever 

 went to that sea) and hunted seals with spears about ^^^^' 

 70 miles southwest ofL" the islands, and our catch was nearly all cows 

 that had gi\en birth to their young and had milk in their teats. In 

 hunting with the si)ear we don't lose many that we hit. I never hunted 

 with guns, but have cauglit a great many seals that had shot in them. 

 I know of no place along the coast where seal^ haul 

 out upon the land; nor have I ever heard of such place; coS.^*"""^ ''"* "^ 

 nor neither does any of my people know of such a xjlace. 



