494 TESTIMONY 



dom sleeps in the water during the sealing season. When the north- 

 ward migration begins in March, the male seals pursue their way with 

 all diligence to the rookeries, and arrive there about thirty days ahead 

 of the coming of the female seals. It nuist be plain from this, that the 



wby fewer males Opportunities for slaying male seals tliat are traveling 

 are killed. rapidly through the water, must be far less than for 



killing female seals, who, making their way leisurely, feeding as they 

 go, and resting frequently because they are heavy with pup, offer a far 

 more extensive target to the rifle of the hunter. 



The Indians with whom I conversed in British Columbia, and who 

 had had a varied and extensive experience of sealing, not only as seal 

 hunters for schooners, but when out in search of food, all declared, that 

 the male seal seldom eat and never slept while on his way to the rook- 

 eries. They declared that as with the salmon when on its way to the 

 spawning grounds, they had never found food in the stomach of tlie few 

 male seals they had managed to capture. 



So far as I w^as able to learn, the terms " sleeper" and "traveler" as 

 applied to seals, had their origin among the Indians. They declared, 

 and in that they are borne out by all of the white hunters, that the seal, 

 when it is desirous of resting in the water, inflates a bladder in its 

 body, which keeps it afloat. Whether this be so or not, makes no 

 Only sleeping seals difference, but the fa(;tis, that almost the only way the 

 killed" by Indians. Indians have of killing seals is by paddling noiselessly 

 up to the sleeping animal as it floats on the water, and spearing it. 



Many of the schooners employ Indian hunters, who work much 

 cheaper than the whites, who only use the spear, and never attempt to 

 kill a traveling seal. 



The reports of their catches show that all of their captures are 

 females. It could not well be otherwise, for the male 

 by^ii^iS^f'''^ ^'"*"^ seals, in making tlieir way to the rookeries, take a more 

 northerly course, and go with all speed, while the 

 females move towards the mouth of the Columbia, and other large 

 fishing banks, following the runs of fish, or idly waiting until nature 

 tells them that the period of gestation is about ended, and they then 

 make their way to the rookeries to be delivered of their pups. 



At the times when the male seals are on the rookeries, the large 

 catches are made. A traveling seal is alert, cautious, 

 fic^f to^cafch!*^^ *^'^' quick of hearing, and easily disturbed. A sleepingseal 

 is at the mercy of anyone. The large proportion of 

 traveling seals shot at and lost is due to the timidity of the animal; 

 in fact, all the hunters admit that when there. is much shooting going 

 on, the seals are very diflicultto get. The loss of sleeping seals, which 

 I estimate as two lost for one saved, is due to the fact that unless the 

 bullet or shot kills the animal instantly, it will immediately dive, 

 and it is not easy to kill a seal instantly. The head of the seal affords 

 but a small mark. Even in the case of a sleeper, the motion of the 

 water keeps it moving. The boat from which the hunter shoots is also 

 moving, and while there are men, who, at a distance of 50 or 60 yards, 

 can shoot a small object under such circumstances, they are extremely 

 rare. They are famous as experts, and they are highly rewarded for 

 their skill. Certainly not one in ten of all the seal hunters can truth- 

 fully assert, nor do they attempt to do so when in a 

 kiUed'^Tnstlutiy.'^*^^ Confidential humor, that they kill 50 per cent of their 

 seals dead. 



I was in the company of anumberof theinin Victoria in 1889, and heard 

 them talking among themselves of their x)rowess. Some put forward 



