382 TESTIMONY 



barpoon hits a seal the barb becomes detached from the handle but is 



securely fastened in the body. The handle floats upon the water and 



is afterwards secured and is used again. I lose but 



^^success with the ^.^^.y f^^ g^j^jg ^^^^^ j -^^^ -^^^^^ ^^q harpoou. Wlieu 



white men or traders began coming in here with 

 schooners they offered us large inducements to go cruising for seals and 

 we commenced goingfarther from land but did not notice anydecrease 

 in the number of seals each year, until about six or seven years ago, when 

 vessels with v.iiite hunters and armed with shotguns began to appear 

 in considerable numbers off the coast. Since that time the decrease 

 has been very rapid. We often take seals that have been wounded 

 with a rifle or shotgun, and in their bodies there are a large number 

 of shot. When sealing along the coast it is seldom that I have seen or 

 captured au old bull. I have caught quite a large number of gray 

 pups or yearhngs, and they are about equally male and female. About 

 ' , ,, ,^ ,^ one-half of all seals that I have caught in the strait 



About half caught, ., , ji n -i-i 



pregnant females. or ou the coast were full-gTOwn COWS With pups in 



them, and I have never caught a full-grown barren 



, X T cow, nor one that had given birth to her young, and 



Appear about Jan- ^^ j .,•,"-,, o t - i i • 



uary 1 near Cape was lu milk. About the Ist of January seals begin 

 Flattery. • to appear arouud the cape and slowly make their way 



north and are gone by the middle of July. The grown cows are the 

 first to go, and leave before the middle of June. Young seals remain to 

 the last. In hunting with guns, I usually get about two out of five 



that I shoot; sometimes I would wound one and it 

 Waste of life. ^ould get aAvay and it would probably die; sometimes 



I would kill the seal dead and it would sink in the water almost as 

 quickly as a rock, and unless we were quick to reach.it, it w(mld be 

 lost. Sometimes we fish them up out of the water with a gaff hook, 

 and would secure a few that way. 



In 1887, about the 1st of June, I went into the Bering Sea in my own 



schooner, the Lottie, and hunted about 60 miles off the 

 ^^^ottie,is87,m9,ani\ ^|^g iglauds and secured about 700 seals, most all of 



1891, m Bering Sea. , . , . .n rni i j -n • 



which were cows m milk. These cows had mdk m 

 their breasts, but had no pups in them. I returned to the Bering Sea 

 in my own boat, the Lottie, in 1889, and also in 1891, and sealed all the 

 way from 100 to 180 miles from the St. George and St. 

 ^Mostly milking fe- pj^^j islauds. The catch of these two years were of 

 ^^ ^'" about the same character as those caught in 1887, and 



Kooijeries only on were luostly femalcs that had givcu birth to their youiig 



PribUof Islands. ^^^^^ ^^^_^ .^ ^^.^^.^ j j^^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^j^^^ ^j^^^. ^^^ ^.^^^^ 



Pelagic birth xm- where scals haul out upon the land, nor do I think 

 ^"°'™- that they give birth to their young in the water or on 



the kelp. I am acquainted with the diflerent tribes of Indians along 

 the coast of Vancouver Island, and have never heard them say that 

 seals haul out upon the land on the coast or in Barclay Sound. I am 

 unable to tell a male seal fi'om a female while in the water, unless it be 

 an old bull with a long wig. Seals used to be very plentiful, and I 

 never noticed any decrease in their number until white hunters coin- 

 menced coming here and killing them with guns, about 

 ecrease. ^.^ ^^ sevcu yeajs ago. Since that they have decreased 



very rapidly and have got very shy. Our tribe used to have no diffi- 

 culty in catcliing 8,000 to 10,000 seals, and now we can not get a thou- 

 sand. We eat tbe meat of the seal and depend largely upon it for our 

 subsistence. 



James GLArLANiioo. 



