APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 555 



COWS and yonng females. I have always found it harder to get female 

 seals than males, especially cows carrying pups. They are very watch- 

 ful, and seem to be always on the alert." 



Mattheic Byan, ten years' experience, took about as many females as 

 males in 1892; on the Asiatic side more males than females. Of 500 

 seals taken there, not over 100 were females. "In Behring Sea — 

 American side — last year [1891J we got, I think, more males than 

 females — certainly not more females than males." 



Captain R. 0. Lavender, five years' experience, got on the coast in 

 1892 over one third of his catch in females, less than half of which were 

 barren cows; he found it the same other years. He further says: "I 

 have been three seasons in Behring Sea. When on the sealing grounds 

 nearest the islands I got mostly females, but further out they were 

 mostly males." 



Thorwal Mathason, boat-steerer in 1891, thinks that three out of five 

 of the seals taken are females. 



J. 8. Fanning killed, while 50 miles off Mount St. Elias in 1892, 158 

 seals, of which not more than 8 were females, and the other hunters on 

 same schooner had the same experience. 



Abraham Billard, two years' experience, states that about one-half 

 his coast catch were females, and that about one-fourth of these were 

 in pup. 



George Bishow, six years' experience as hunter, states that, in 1892, 

 he took more males than ever before; more than half his catch Avere 

 males. "All the hunters ou the 'Umbrina' got more males than 

 females. In previous years I got. a little over half of my catch in 

 females, but very little over, and the other hunters on the vessels I was 

 on about the same proportion." He has sealed three years in Behring 

 Sea, and thinks his catch there was about half females. "Cows in 

 young are very uneasy, and hard to get." 



Otto BuchhoJz, three years' experience, states that, on the American 

 coast, he got more females than males. " Cows with young in them are 

 very hard to get at. They are generally on the watch, and make away 

 as soon as the boat comes near." 



Ralph Starrat, a hunter with three years' experience, thinks there are 

 more females than males among the seals. 



Captain William CLeary, seven years' experience, states that both 

 his coast and Behring Sea catches have always been composed of about 

 equal numbers of males and females. 



Franh Campbell, in 1892, got more females than males; among them 

 were twenty to twenty-five barren females [total catch, sixty-five]. 

 Joseph Brown, in 1892, got more females than males. 



Captain Alfred R. Bissett, three years' experience, states that, in 1891, 

 80 per cent, were young males. In 1892 his catch was about half 

 females on the coast. His hunters got 568 seals on the coast; "they 

 saved about all the skins of the pups that were taken from the cows 

 killed, and had about 30 of them. Of the 568 seals I am sure there 

 were not more than 70 or 80 cows in pup. 



15 Herman R. Smith, twelve years' experience, says that " on the 



Vancouver coast, in the early part of the season, about one-half 

 of the seals got are females, about one half of which are with pup. As 

 tlie season grows, fewer females are got, and of those got a smaller 

 proportion are in pup." 



