TAKEN IN SAN FRANCISCO. 471 



hunter. We nsed sliotgims, using a rifle to shoot at lon^^ range. It 

 depends a great deal upon the weather as to the amount of seals ob- 

 tained by the hunters. After a heavy blow you see the seals lying on 

 top of the water asleep, and you can get very close to them, and on an 

 average you would get 2 or 3 out of every 5 or 6 you ^^steofiife 

 kill or wound, Avhile in rough weather you would not 

 get 1 out of 5 or G killed or wounded. I could not tell how far off we 

 caught them from the seal islands, as I did not know the distances. 

 At that time there were lots of seals in the water. 



John O'Brien. 



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

 [l. s.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Fublie. 



Deposition of John Olsen, sealer. 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



City and County of San Francisco, ss: 



John Olseu, having been duly sworn, deposes and says: I reside in 

 Seattle, Washington. My occupation is ship carpenter. ^^ erienco 

 I helped to build the schooner Labrador, in 1890, at ^penenco. 

 Vancouver, and went sealing in her in 1891. Captain Labrador, isoi. 

 Whiteleigh was commander. We left Vancouver for 

 Victoria, on the 29th of March, and fitted out the vessel, leaving Vic- 

 toria on the 8th day of April. She carried four l(3-foot boats and one 

 stern boat 14 feet. She carried two men to the boat, one to pull and 

 one to hunt. We commenced hunting outside of Cape Cook, about 5 

 miles from shore, and hunted from there up to Unamak Pass, in the 

 Aleutian Islands and entered the Bering Sea about 

 the 5th of June, and was ordered out of the sea Bering sea. 

 the 19th of June. In going up the coast to Unamak Time of entering. 

 Pass we caught about 400 seals, mostly females with 

 young, and put their skins on board the Danube, an prSnanrcowL"""**^^ 

 English steamboat, at Alatack Bay, and after we got 

 into the Bering Sea we caught 220. We had 200 at the time the 

 lieutenant ordered us out of the sea, the remainder we caught after. 



After entering the sea we got one female with a very large pup, 

 which I took out alive and kept it for three or four 

 days, when it died, as it would not eat anything. All n.o'stiy nu^sing'cows" 

 the others had given birth to their young and their 

 breasts were full of milk. I do not believe mothers give 

 birth to their young in the water. We went to Four 

 Mountain Pass, when we went out. We caught these Kiiiednursin"-cows 

 mothers, full of milk, from 50 to 150 miles off the seal 5o to iso miles" from 

 islands. I shot twenty-eight myself. We used shot- "^■■*°'^'- 

 guns, using buckshot, and I have known twenty shots wastoof life. 

 to be fired at a seal before we got her. When we shot 

 at " sleepers" we got a good many more than when we shot at ''breech- 

 ers" or "rollers," and we secured on an average about one out of every 



