502 TESTIMONY 



except by tlie owner, wlio charges every item of expense against liei as 

 it is i)aicl out, and tUe figures 1 have giveu ouly serve as an approxi- 

 mate guide to the average profits of a sealing trip. According to Mr. 

 Miln's estimate, a big schooner catching 2,000 seals (an observedly high 

 estimate) would make a profit of $4,440 on her trip, if the skins sold for 

 $7.50 each, and he adds that she could catch 3,000 skins if undisturbed 

 by a United States Revenue cruiser, and if she could, two things would 

 hapiien. Skins Avould drop to next to nothing in value and there would 

 be no seals next year. 



There are 24 Victorian schooners in the trade and 32 San Francisco 

 ^, ^ , ■ , and Puget Sound schooners, making a total of 56 schoon- 



Total number of .^ ,, ^ ,. ., ,,,,,. t • .^ ,, ^ ^i 



Canadian and Ameri- CTs. At the rate ot . 5,000 skius to the scliooucr, they 

 can vessels in fleet, would, if uudistui-bed, take 108,000 skins. As the seals 

 they kill in the Bering are nearly all females either in youngor having 

 i.f. ,. .i"st pupped, the loss of seal life would be 3oC,000. To 

 tionVt^eaUif.'i.vsaki tliis uuist Ijc added 108,000 killed and wounded seal 

 fleet, if unrest, i;t.d. .^^^^l ^1^^^^. pups uot caught, making a total of 072,000 

 seal killed with the i^reseut flieet. 



COST OF INDIAN OUTFIT. 



Where Indians are em])loyed as hnnters, the expense of the outfit and 

 .. voyage is much less. The Indians hunt from their 



Costof Indiauouttit. "^ '^, . , .,, .,, • j. i x- j* 



own skin canoes, kill with spears instead oi firearms, 

 so that other seals are not frightened away, and feed themselves on seal 

 blubber. They are paid .|1.50 per skin and seal with two men to the 

 canoe, one to spear and one to paddle. The cost of an outfit for a 

 schooner carrying thirty Indians, which is a common number, is fifteen 

 skin canoes at $20, $300. 



The expense of the .voyage is for the wages and board of a white 

 captain and four sailors, salt for seal skins and a little tea and crackers 

 for the Indians. 



Indian sealing being so much cheaper and more profitable all the 

 schooners would engage Indians were it not for the fact that these 

 Si wash are an extremelv troublesome race and require 

 pS/ieiL^"''"'' '"''""* ^^'*^' utmcfst tact and skill to manage. Ouly a few cap- 

 tains can handle tlicin to advantage and they are mostly 

 captains who have Si wash blood in their veins. 



LOSING WOUNDED SEALS. 



The statement I made that the capture of 168,000 skins meant the 



Waste of life death of 720,000 seals, needs some explanation. The 



sealing Heet begins w(»rk in the Bering Sea about June 



and is all back home by the end of September. IJuring this period 



there are but few seals in the waters of Bering Sea, except females. 



The male seals are all at tlie breeding islands, either guarding their 



95 per centof seals J^aicms or Waiting the c<m.ing of the females. Ninety- 



kiiied in Bering Sea fivc per cciit ot all the scals killed (luiiiig summcr and 



*''°"'^«^- autumn in the Bering ai(^ femah'S. 



Thomas Mowat, esq., ins])e<'tor of fisheries for British Columbia, in 

 his report to the governor- general of Canada, says that only 1 per 

 cent of the Bering collection are pups. 



The female seals killed in the Bering are either on their way to give 

 birth to their young or have left their pup on the islands, and, guided 



