432 TESTIMONY 



Seattle about the latter part of March, and went north catching in the 



North Pacific about 800 seals, and then we entered the Bering iSea and 



caught about 1,000 more, when we were seized and sent to Sitka. I stayed 



in Sitka afew days, when I worked my way to Seattle, arriving there about 



Active 1887 December. Then, in 1887, 1 went in the English schooner 



Active, of which Captain Johnson was master. We left 



Victoria about the middle of March and went as far as Cape Cook, and 



caught about 200 seals, when she was lost and I was landed on Cape 



Cook, and came right down along the coast to Clockouc Sound, and 



from there went down to Bartlett Sound and joined the English 



J ,„„, schooner Seaward about a month or two after sailing 



from Victoria. Captain Lyman was master. He had 



400 seals before I joined her. We went along the coast, catching 250 



seals, and entered the Bering Sea, getting about 300 more, and came 



home about the 1st of September. 



In 1888 1 went out in the Enghsh schooner T^o^rt i£;e, leaving Victoria 

 about the latter part of March, going along the coast 

 iio,a Lee, 1888. ^^^ catching about 200 seals in the North Pacific ; then 

 we entered the Bering Sea and got 400 more. I did not go out the next 

 season, which would be 1889. In 1890 I went out in 

 o. G. White, 1890. ^^^ ^_ ^ White, of which Captain Hagman was master. 

 We left San Francisco about the latter part of ]\[arch and went to the 

 coast of Japan, having caught 550 seals. Then we went into tlie Ber- 

 ing Sea and caught 25 seals, when our hunting boat was blown ashore 

 on the Russian Islands. The Russian authorities gave us a house to 

 live in and some clothes, and later on they sent us home. I did not 

 know what had become of the schooner G. G. White until I returned 

 here. The vessels that I went out in had from three to six boats, and 

 3 men to the boat — 1 hunter and 2 boat-fmllers. I did ]iot ])ay much 

 attention to the sex of seals we killed in the North Pacific, but know 

 that a great many of them were cows that had pups in them, and we 

 killed most of them while they were asleep on the water. 

 cenroTthfsI^cau^giit I kuow that fully 75 per cent of those we caught in the 

 females in milk. Bering Sca wcre cows in milk. We used rifies and 



shotguns, and shot them when feeding or asleep on the water. 

 An experienced hunter: like myself will get two out of three that he 

 •kills, but an ordinary hunter would not get more than 

 gets^HutTs kmcd- one out of every three or four that he kills. I have never 

 an inexperienced, 1 iieard of iior know of scals being born in the water, 

 out of 3 or . ^^^^ J have never known of any place where they haul 



Kot born in water, up ou land cxccpt the Seal islaiids. I have killed 

 uaui up only on is- mothcr scals ill milk from 40^ to 100 miles oft' the 

 land's, seal islands. There has been a great decrease in the 



number of seals to be seen in the North Pacific and 

 mils from\^oTo WO Bcrlug Sca since I first went out to hunt them, and if 

 miles from islands. the large fleet of vcsscls going to these waters annu- 

 Decrease ^^^^ contiuucs to liuiit ill the futnre as in the past few 



years it is bound to exterminate the seal. 



Thomas Gibson. 



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

 [L. s.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Fuhlic. 



