TAKEN AMONG THE MAKAH INDIANS. 381 



the seal not only for its fur, but we use every part of it. We eat the 

 meat, make oil out of the blubber, and after cleaning the stomach use it 

 tor holding the oil. Seals are now very scarce and wild pg^rease- cause 

 along the "coast. I believe the cause of this is that *' '^^'^^ ' 

 wliife hunters have been hunting them so much with gar™'"^'*'°° ^^^^^' 

 guns. If so much shooting at seals is not stoj^i^ed they 

 will soon be all gone, 



liis 



Circus x Jim. 



mark. 



Witnesses : 



John P. McGtLinn. 

 C. E. Gay. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 27th day of April, A, D. 1892. 



[SEAL.] ClAEENOE P. BUOWN, 



Notary Public in and for the State of Washington. 



De;position of James Claplanhoo, MaTcali Indian, sealer (master). 



pelagic sealing. 



State of Washington, 



County of Clallam, ss : 



James Claplanhoo, being duly sworn, deposes and says : I am about 

 43 years old, and a native Makah Indian. I reside on the Neah Bay 

 Eeservation, county of Clallam, State of Washington, ^^^^^.^^^^^ 

 United States of America. I am, by occupation, a ^i^''"''^'^''- 

 hunter and fisherman. I own the schooner Lottie, which is of about 

 28 tons burden. I bought the said schooner about seven years ago. 

 I liave been engaged in hunting seals about twenty- four years. In 

 my early years I hunted seals in canoes and with spears in the Strait 

 of San Juan de Fuca, and about 80 miles oft' Cape Flattery. I killed 

 seals for food and for their skins, getting about $3 apiece for each 

 skin. Al)out fifteen years ago Willie Gallick, who had a trading post 

 here, had three or four schooners, and employed Indians to go sealing 

 and sail his vessels. They would put their canoes and spears on 

 board the schooners and go out and hunt about 20 or 30 miles off 

 the coast, as far south as the Columbia River and north to Barclay 

 Sound. A few years later some of the Indians owned, or partly, an 

 interest in the schooners. About six years ago the 

 British schooner 7l(/refZAr?«ws came here, and her mas- *'"*' 



ter engaged Indian hunters to go sealing in the Bering Sea. Until 

 three or four years a^o I used nothing but spears in hunting seals; now 

 I sometimes use a gun. Seals generally appear off 

 Cape Flattery about the 20th of December, but during FiltSrTBe^embfrTo! 

 the last four or five years there have not been near as 

 many coming to the strait or on the coast as in former j^f^^j.^^^^ 

 years. 'IMiere are a few in the strait, but we do not 

 hunt them now, and can not secure more than one-sixth as many in a 

 season as we used to a few years ago. 



In spearing seals I use a harpoon with either one or two barbs, sim- 

 ilar, but smaller than that used in taking whales. The harpoon has a 

 ha.ndle about 12 or 14 feet long, and a strong line, about 70 feet long is 

 attached to the barb, the other end of which is fastened to the canoe. 

 We throw the spear at a seal with both hands, and when the spear or 



