TAKEN IN SAN FRANCISCO. 449 



me to go. It is the common conversation among us hunters that the 

 seals are getting so scarce it does not pay for us to go and hunt tliem 

 unless they will give us a better price per skin, and a great many of 

 the old hunters would not go out this year on that account. 



James Kean. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 16th day of April, A. D. 1893. 

 [l. s.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary ruhlic. 



Deposition of James Kennedy, sealer {bout-puller). 



pelagic sealing. 



State of California, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss: 

 James Kennedy, having been duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 

 now residing in San Francisco. My occupation is that 

 of a sailor. I went to the North Pacific and Bering '^P'^^^nce. 

 Sea on the schooner Maggie Ross, of which Captain Maggie jioss i884 

 Olsen was master, in the early part of May, 1884. I 

 shipped as a boat puller. We sailed from Victoria, British Columbia, 

 and bore due north to the Bering Sea. When we ariived there we had 

 some seventy-five to eiglity seals, the greater part of which were females, 

 some of which had pups in them. We entered the Bering Sea about 

 the latter part of July and captured 260 seals from 

 20 to 100 miles off the seal islands. A large propor- iuToL^ '""'' ''"^'" 

 tion of them were females nursing their young, and -n, , ■ .„ ^„ 



,, . , , , 1 .• 11 i. -11 TTT 1 in Females m milk 20 



their teats were large and lull »tt milk. We had four to loo miies from. is- 



boats aboard, each boat having a hunter, steerer and ^""'''^" 



boat-puller, and used rifles. On an average we got one or two out of 



every six or seven that we wounded or killed. In ^ 



1888, I made a fishing voyage to the Bering Sea, and 



while in there heard the captain and officers discussing about the 



decrease of seals on the islands and in the water. I 



heard it discussed on our return at the different ports ^c^ease. 



we put in at, and also in Victoria on our arrival, and all said the seals 



were decreasing. 



James Kennedy. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 15th day of April, A. D. 1892. 

 [l. s.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Public. 



Deposition of James Kiernan, sealer [master). 

 arctic and antarctic sealing. 



State of California, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss: 

 James Kiernan, having been duly sworn, deposes and says : I am 

 master mariner by profession, and a resident of Call- ^^ 

 fornia. I have been engaged in seal hunting since ' -^P^^^^ce. 

 2716— vol ii- 29 



