APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 509 



Number of Seals required for Food of Natives. 



Between the 19th May audtho 18th June, 1892, inclusive, there were five "killinog" 

 on St. Paul Island, the avera/re number of seals taken at each killing being about 

 125; these Avere doubtless suflicient to supply tbe natives with food, as there was 

 at that time no lack of seals. On the 25th June the number was suddenly increased 

 to 497, and each killing thereafter averaged a little less than 400 seals. During the 

 first nine days of August 1370 seals were killed on St. Paul Island, an average of 

 over 150 for each day, consideraldy more than the average weekly killing earlier in 

 the season. During the whole suunner a certain small j'ortion of the seal meat waa 

 dried by tlie natives tor their own use, and many kegs and barrels of salted meat 

 were, besides, ])repared as usual (or natives at Unalaska, and sent to them. A smoke- 

 house was built under the direction of the United States Treasury Agent, but up to 

 the 1st .Inly no attempt liad been made to cure any of the tlesh. The smoke-house 

 was at last lille<l with meat that hafl. been soaked in brine, but, not having been 

 propeily dried before being hung up, this first lot of meat rotted and had to be 

 thrown away. I was told that later attempts were more successful, but I saw none 

 of the cured meat. As a rule, only the best parts of the carcasses were taken, and 

 great quantities of flesh were left to rot upon tiie killing-grounds after every drive. 

 But a small portiou of the flesh of the 293 seals killed at Polavina rookery on the 

 8th August was saved. 



Had the requirements of the natives been considered, no more seals would have 

 l)een killed during the summer months than were actually required for fooil at the 

 time. It would have been much better had meat that was to bo salted or smoked 

 been prepared late in autumn instead of in July and August, as there would have 

 then been less risk of it spoiling; and had even 1,000 of the seals killed during the 

 first nine days of August been spared until November, the natives would have had 

 fresh meat in greater (juantity, and as it keeps well when frozen, its use could have 

 been extended over a greater period of time. 



I walked over the killing-ground at St. George on the 1st August, and nuted many 

 carcasses from which no meat whatever had been taken, while from others the fore- 

 flippers on]y had been removed. Natives were observed on ?jeveral days previous 

 to this to go to the killing-ground, and cut from the carcnsses meat in small quanti- 

 ties as it was required. The seals from which the meat was taken were killed on the 

 21st July. 



When on St. Paul Island in 1891, at the request of the British Commissioners, the 

 parts of a seal that are eaten by the natives were cut from one weighing 85 lbs., the 

 skin of which weighed 8 lbs.; it was found that the flesh weighed 25 lbs., and the 

 heart, liver, tongue, and kidneys, all of which may he and often are eaten, 5 lbs. 



Note referring to the Afethod of taking Seals at Sea. 



In the expectation of being able to take seals on the way north, I took with me, 

 when I embarked on the "Quadra," a sealing-boat of the pattern now exclusively 

 use<l by the white hunters. This boat I kept with me all summer, and had ample 

 opportunity of judging of its suitability for the work for which it is intended. 

 These boats are light, swift craft, and are so built that either end answers equally 

 well as the l)Ow. They are propelled by short, paddle-like oars, connuonly called 

 paddles by the sealers, the lightness of which enables the oarsmen to ])ull very 

 quickly, and so, when necessary, turn the boat very easily. This is seldom neces- 

 sary, however, except when a wounded seal is being chased, and is not then really 

 necessary except in order to put the rowers out of danger when the hunter fires at 

 a seal which is badly wounded and comes up behind the l)oat; then a few strokes of 

 the oars carries the boat to it without the necessity of its being turned round, as one 

 of the rowers faces each way. When necessary to go astern the "boat-puller" 

 becomes the ''boat-steerer," and vice versa. The term "boat-steerer" is applied to 



the rower, or "paddler," who, under ordinary circumstances, sits in the stern 

 156 of the boat, and though he assists in propelling the boat, faces the bow and 



guides it as well. I saw many of these boats at various places, and all were 

 of about the same size and built on the same model. 



Appendix (A). 



Off Triaxgle Island, May 11, 1892. 

 We, the Undersigned, certify that we were with Mr. Macoun when he visited West 

 Haycock Island this morning, and that we saw from the boat fur-seals all along the 

 west tide of the island in bunches of two or three, while off the south end there waa 



