546 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



James McBae says: "It is very seldom a seal will sink before it can 

 be got at." 



Captain William CLeary, from talking with bis hunters, would say 

 that from 1 to 5 per cent, of the seals killed are lost by sinking. 



William Cowie, one year a boatsteerer, and one year a hunter, says 

 that "seals nearly always float long enough to allow one to reach them; 

 the gatf had to be used only twice to keep seals trom sinking [in 

 taking 106]." 



Frank Campbell, with five years' experience as boat-puller, boat- 

 steerer, and hunter, says: "Seals will float, on an average, from five 

 to ten minutes — sometimes much longer, and sometimes a shorter time.'' 



Joseph Brown, who has been sealing six years, states that "seals float 

 various lengths of time. I have often killed one when two are together, 

 and then followed and killed the other before picking up the first." 



Captain Laughlin McLean, master of the sealing-schooner "Favourite" 

 for seven years, thinks that his men lose about a-half of 1 per cent, of 

 the seals they shoot at. He one day gave his hunters 95 cartridges, 

 and they brought in 85 seals, having, of course, missed some alto- 

 gether. 



James Shields, six years a hunter, thinks he lost between 5 and 10 per 

 cent, of the seals he killed the first year, and less than 5 per cent, the 

 next two seasons. In 1891 and 1892, for which years he gives actual 

 number taken and lost, his loss was less than 1 per cent. 



George F. French, whose average loss in three years was about 2J per 

 cent., thinks that about the average loss of average hunters. Most of 

 the seals he lost were " travellers," and about 70 per cent, of those he 

 got were sleepers. 



C. A. Williams, who has been a hunter five years, and in 1892 lost 

 3.3 per cent, of the seals he killed (see Table), states that a good hunter 

 ought not to lose more than he did, and that he had often heard hunters 

 say they had killed a seal that sank when he had seen the shot strike 

 beyond it, and the seal dive. 



Captain Theodor Magnescn, four years navigator and master of sealiug- 

 vessels, told a United States Agent on the " Corwiii," when questioned 

 by him, that between 4 and 5 per cent, of the seals killed were lost by 

 sinking. 



Captain Wentivorth F. Baker, four years master of the " Viva," and 

 one year of the " C. H. Tupper," killed in 1891 fifty-five seals, and lost 

 one. He says: "Talking with my men, I find this is about the per- 

 centage lost, but this year fewer were lost. It is a common excuse of 

 a hunter who has bad luck during the day to say that seals sank." 



Captain Robert McKiel, six years master of sealing-schoouers, says 

 that few seals are lost by sinking, certainly not more than 5 per cent.; 

 for 1,700 seals his hunters got in 1892, about 40 (2 to 3 per cent.) were 

 lost, according to their count. 



Captain Victor Jacobscn, eleven years master of vessels engaged in 

 the sealing business, states that he never has lost many seals by sink- 

 ing, and that no good hunter does, " for we can always tell whether 

 a seal will sink or not, it shot in a certain place." 



Captain James W. Todd, master of sealing- vessels since 1886, states 

 that his experience with hunters has invariably been that good average 

 hunters lose by sinking very few seals, not more than 4 in 100. " Poor 

 hunters often attribute their poor catch to the seals sinking after being 



