TAKEN AMONG THE MAKAH INDIANS. 387 



two seals out of five that we shot. About one-half of those caught 

 along the coast were full-grown cows with pups in them, 

 a few Avere mediuin-sized males, and the rest were fem5lTaiInrcS°* 

 younger seals of both sexes. I have never caught a 

 full grown cow in the straits or along the coast that did not have a pup 

 in her. I am intimately acquainted with the coast from here to Bar- 

 clay Sound, and I know of no place, nor have not 

 heard of any place, where seals come to land, nor co?°t °°* ^^""^ "^ "'^ 

 neither do I believe it to be possible for them to have 

 their young in the water or on the kelp and have their possibfe^.*^ ^"^*^ ™' 

 pups live. Seals are not as plentiful now as they Avere .^ 

 before white men commenced hunting then* with guns 

 around here some six or seven years ago. They are more shy now and 

 it is nnich more difilicult for the lumters to creep uji and spear them 

 than it was a few years ago. If they keep on killing them with the 

 guns there will be none left in a little while. 



Hia 

 AlFERD X IliVING. 



mark. 



Witness : 



John P. McGlinn. 

 C. E. Gay. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me on this 27th dav of April, A. D. 

 1892. 

 [SEAL.] Clarence P. Brown, 



Notary Fuhlio in and for the State of Washington. 



Deposition of IshJca, Malmh Indian, sealer. 



pelagic sealinc 



State of Washington, 



County of Clallam, ss : 

 Ishka, being duly sworn, deposes and says: My age is about 60 

 years. I am a native Indian of the Makah tribe, and reside on the 

 reservation at the Neah Bay Agency, in the State of Washington, 

 United States of America. I am by occupation a fisherman. I have 

 hunted seals along the coast ever since I was old 

 enough to do so. I have always used spears while hunt- ^P^"''°ce. 

 ing the seals in canoes. I have hunted seals in the Straits of San Juan 

 de Fuca, 40 or 50 miles off' Cape Flattery, until about seven years ago; 

 since then I have frequently gone as far south as the Columbia Eiver 

 and to the northward to the far end of Vancouver Island, and fully 

 one-half of tlie seals we catch are cows with young in 

 them. I have been out sealing once this year and we cap- nautfco ws' ^^^^ ^''*'^" 

 tured three seals; one of which, in dividing them 

 up, became mine. The one I got was a full-grown cow with a pup in 

 it. In the months of January and February the pups in the cows are 

 so small that one will not notice whether the cow is pregnant or not 

 unless he cuts her open, but later on in the season it maybe observed 

 without cutting them open. *I have never killed a cow on the coast 

 that had given birth to her pup and was giving milk, 

 nor have I ever seen a pup born the same year. Seals coasl""* ^^""^ "^ °" 

 do not haul out ujjon the land along the coast and Not bom in wator 

 breed, nor do they give birth to their young in the "^ ""^ ^ *' 



