TAKEN AMONG THE MAKAH INDIANS. 389 



and difficult to catcli. If luiiited with guns tliey will Appear off cape 



all soon be destroyed. Seals appear off Cape Flattery aMjlBuary^S^o 



in December and January, and nearly all of them are gouebyjuiyi. 

 gone by the first of July. 



His 



Selwish X Johnson. 



mark. 



Witnesses : 



John P. McGltnn. 

 C. E. Gay. 



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

 1892. 

 [SEAL.] Clarence P. Brown, 



Notary ruhlic in and for the State of Washington. 



Reposition of James Lighthouse, Malcali Indian sealer. 



PELAGIC sealing. 



State of Washington, 



County of Clallam., ss : 

 James Lighthouse, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am a na- 

 tive Indian of Makah tribe, and reside at IS^eah Bay, on the Indian Ba- 

 ser vation, in the State of Washington, United States of America. I 

 am about 55 years of age, and my occupation is that of 

 hunting and fishing. I am the owner of the schooner Experience. 

 C. C. Ferlcins. I have been engaged in sealing and fish- q. c. PerUns. 

 ing ever since I was old enough to do so. I have al- 

 ways hunted seals with the spear, and have never used the gun or been 

 in Bering Sea. I have always sealed in the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, 

 and around Cape Flattery, and up and down the coast from Barclay 

 Sound to the Columbia Eiyer. I commenced going i^orth to Barclay 

 Sound about ten years ago. Seals are not nearly so -q^^^^^^^ 

 plentiful now as they used to be. About seven years 

 ago white men commenced to hunt seals in this vicinity with guns, 

 since which time they have been decreasing in numbers and have be- 

 come wild and hard to catch. I am intimately acquainted with the 

 bays and coast from here to Barclay Sound, and I know of no place on 

 the coast, neither have I heard of any, where seals 

 haul out upon the land and give birth to their young, coast.""* ^* "^ °° 

 nor do I beheve that they give birth to their young in 

 the water or on the kelp. Of all the seals captured by Are not born in the 

 me, about one-half of them, I think, were cows with ^^ ^^ ""^ °^ '^ ^" 

 pups iu them, and it is very seldom that I have ever caught a full- 

 grown cow that was barren or did not have a pup in ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^,^ 

 ner; nor have 1, m my long experience, caught a cow taken are pregnant 

 that was in milk, or tbat had recently given birth to ''"^^.''• 

 her young. I seldom ever kill an old bull, for there are but very few 

 of tbem tliat mingle with the herd along the coast. I am unable to 

 tell a uiale seal from a female while in the Avater, unless it be an old 

 bull with a long wig. Seals are not as plentiful and are more shy than 

 they used to be, and are more difficult to catch, be- 

 cuuse they have been hunted so much for the last five eciease. 

 or six years with guns. 



