APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CAPE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 

 WHITE HUNTERS— Continued. 



545 



7 III. — Statements respecting Number of Seals lost by SinTcing before 



Recovery ivhen killed at Sea. 



Charles Le Blanc, who has been sealing five seasons as boat-steeier, 

 mate, and hunter, and who has been out with twenty-five different hunt- 

 ers, does not remember any of them losing more than 4 or 5 in 100. 

 "It is always the excuse of a poor hunter that the seals he shot sank, 

 but, as a boat-steerer, I know better." 



Captain B. 0. Lavender, four years master of sealing-schooners, and 

 one year before this a hunter, that he might learn something of the 

 business, says: "I have hunted every year myself, and have lost not 

 more than 1 out of 20. I explained to the people on the 'Corwin' [in 

 1892] that the reason some hunters were reported to lose more seals 

 than others was that a hunter was paid according to the number of 

 skins he got, and that killing seals was like killing birds or other ani- 

 mals — the poor hunter excused his lack of skill by saying that he killed 

 the animal, and that it had sunk. The boat-puller knows better than 

 that." 



B S, PT VIII- 



So 



