. TAKEN AMONG THE MAKAH INDIANS. 385 



Deposition of Ellalmli^ MaMJi Indian^ sealer. 

 pelagic sealing. 



State of Washington, 



County of Clallam, ss : 



Ellabusli, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am about 30 years 

 of age, and am a native Makah Indian, and reside qu the Neah Bay 

 Eeservation, in the county of Chillam, State of Wash- 

 ington, United States of America. I commenced seal- Experience. 

 ing in canoes along the coast and in the Straits of 

 San Juan de Fuca, about fifteen years ago, and have always hunted 

 seals with spears until recently. Three Indians usually go with each 

 canoe. About ten years ago I went hunting in the . 



schooner 3Iist, owned by a white man. We cruised for ^^^' ^^ ^^' 



seals along the coast, between the Columbia Eiver and Barclay Sound. 

 I have caught 9 seals this year, 5 of which had pups in them ; the small 

 ones did not have pups in them. The seals appear in ^ ^ i • • f 

 the Straits of San Jaun de Fuca the latter part of De- san Juln^a" Fucailt- 

 cember, and are all gone by the middle of July. In the and^are^iif^^o^ne'^b'^' 

 months of January and February the pups in the cows nmUiie of'juiy?"'^ ^ 

 are so small that you will not notice them unless you 

 cut the belly open. All full-grown cows that I have ah fuii-grown cows 

 killed along the coast had pups in them, and have ^'^'^p'^i'- 

 never killed but one that had given birth to their young and were in 

 milk, and have no recollection of having killed a barren cow. The 

 younger ones do not have pups in them, and are about one-half male 

 and one-half female. The full-grown cows leave this vicinity for the 

 north earlier than the younger ones do. I catch more 

 young seals in May and June than I do earlier in the coSt."°* ^^"^^ ''^°'' 

 season. Seals do not haul out upon the land along the 

 coast and give birth to their young. I have never 

 known pups to be born in the water nor on the kelp. ^° pelagic birth. 



About two years ago I begun to hunt with guns, but always carried 

 a spear. Since I have been hunting with guns I lose a 

 great many seals that I shoot. I kill some dead and „^J''^*'*'^ "^ ^'^"^ ^'*^ 

 they sink like a, rock. Some that I shoot are wounded ^''"' 

 and get away and probably die. I have caught a good many seals that 

 had shot iii them. Seals are not so plentiful now as they were a few 

 years ago. They began to decrease about five or six 

 years ago. A good many years ago I used to capture ^^''''^'^s^- 

 seals in the Straits of San Jaun de Fuca, but of late years, since so 

 many schooners and white men have come around here shooting with 

 guns, that only a few come in here and we do not hunt in the straits 

 any more. I used to catch forty or fifty seals in one day, and now if 

 I get six or seven I would have great luck. I have to go a long dis- 

 tance to get seals now. Seals are wild and afraid of an Indian. They 

 have become so since the white man and the trader began to shoot 

 them with shotguns and rifles. In a short time there will be no seals 

 left for the Indian to kill with the spear. In hunting 

 Avith the spear I get almost all the seals that I hit. ^^^"'''^^^ ^'*^ *^* 

 Once, in tlie month of June, I caught a seal that had a 

 jjup in it. I carefully cut the pup out of its mother 

 271G— VOL n 25 



