556 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



WiJliam I)c Witt, a biuiter for the last four years, states that a little 

 more than one halt of those taken on the coast were females. On the 

 coast over half the females were in i)up. 



William G. Gondie, five years' experience as seal-hnnter, says: ''This 

 year the maiority of the seals we got on the coast were bulls. Ont of 

 2,040 seals caught on the coast, about 1,500 were bulls from 2 to 4 years 

 old." About half the females I got on the coast were in pup, the other 

 hnlf barren cows and young females. On the Kussian side a little more 

 than half were females — none in ])up — a very few in milk. Has hunted 

 four years in Behring Sea, and tliinks that, taking all the years together, 

 about one-half the seals taken were fennilcs. He further says: " Cows 

 with young are hardest to get at, especially in May and June. They 

 are then wilder, and more on the watch." 



Captain Laxigldin McLean, seven years' experience, says: "Outside 

 Behring Sea my experience has been that there are more males than 

 females taken — very many more. In Behring Sea we find more females 

 than on the coast, but not nearly so many females as males." 



John H. JIaalce ^ixys that the total catch of the schooner "Walter 

 A. Earle," on which he was a hunter in 1892, was 1,325 seals, of which 

 the greater portion were males. 



James Shields, for six years a seal-hunter, says: "I never kept count 

 of the proportion of males and females taken, but of the larger seals 

 there are more females than males, I think; of the smaller seals there 

 are more males than females; this is on the coast. A good deal 

 depends on where you are in Behring Sea in connection with the sex 

 of the seal; my own experience is I have taken more males than 

 females. Cows with young are wilder than others." 



George F. French, three years' experience, says: "Of the seals I got 

 on the coast the males and lemales were about equal in number; the 

 further north I got, the larger proi)ortion of males I got. Of the 

 females, about 25 per cent, would be with young— the remainder barren 

 cows and young temales." 



Oscar Scarf my»: "I have hunted five years in Behring Sea, and got 

 the sexes in about equal numbers, and it has been the same on the 

 coast. Every year I got barren cows. Pregnant seals are much more 

 watchful and alert than other seals." 



Frederick W. Strong has sealed four years, and thinks that about 

 two-thirds of his coast catch were females, about half of which were 

 with pu]). 



Andreiv Mathison, seven years' experience, states that more than half 

 the seals he got on the coast each year were fenmles. Most of these 

 were young females and barren cows. About one quarter of the females 

 would be with ])up. "Cow seals with pup are very uneasy, easily dis- 

 turbed, and hard to get, and this is more so as the season gets later. 

 The females are then travelling nearly all the time." 



William Shiels has earned his livcliliood for the past seven years as a 

 seal-hunter. He has hunted in Behring Sea five years. He thinks that 

 both on the coast and in Behring Sea he has killed a few more females 

 than males, but in 1892 about two-thirds of his catch were males, and 

 this was the experience of all the hunters on the "E. B. Marvin." 



C. A. TT7/rmw?s, five years' experience as hunter, found the sexes in 

 1892 about equally divided, but in 1891 and 1889 his catch was nearly 

 all bulls. On the Asiatic side he found the seals about equally divided 

 as regards sex. Cows in pup are wilder than the others. 



