43 AFFIDAVITS OF SEALERS AND LOGS OF SEALING- 



VESSELS. 



I.— TESTIMONY RELATING TO PELAGIC SEALING. 



Declaration of William Petit. 



I, William Petit, of the city of Victoria, at present captain of the 

 steam schooner "Mischief," declare: 



That I have been sealing for seven seasons. I generally carry Indian 

 hunters. They lose practically no seals, whether they use a gun or 

 spear. They use the spear wlken they get close enough. Every year 

 seals are shot from the scbooner, and they are almost always got. Tbere 

 is time to unlash and lower a canoe before they sink. I left Vancouver 

 Island — Quatero Sound — on the 16th April, and found a few seals from 

 the first. I cruized from there to Middleton Island, keeping from 30 to 

 300 miles off shore, and found the seals as plentiful this year as last 

 year, but they were much harder to get. I have never seen seals in 

 schools. All ages and sexes travel together. I have not got more 

 than 130 cows out of about 660 seals I have taken this year. I have 

 seen seals opened, and find in them salmon, cod, and sometimes squid. 

 Among the females taken this year were a good many barren females. 

 The last day's catch was four barren females and four males. In 

 former years I have taken females in milk between Kadiak and Sitka; 

 none this year. I have seen seals in the North Pacific Ocean between 

 Unimak Pass and Queen Charlotte Islands in September; one year a 

 good many. Last year I saw some in August; these seals had not been 

 to Behring Sea. A single seal is easier got at than when several are 

 together, as then one at least is almost sure to be awake, and will give 

 warning to the others. Three years ago a young seal that appeared to 

 be not more than a week old was speared by one of my hunters on the 

 Portlock Bank, about 50 or 60 miles from land. This was in June. 

 In Behring Sea I have seen seals cohabiting in the water; both seals 

 would be "straight up and down" in the water, holding one another 

 with their flippers. Among the "grey pups" we take I have never 

 found a female. I have been examining them for five or six years, and 

 have never found a female. 



(Signed) Wm. Petit. 



Port Etches, June 16^ 1892. 



Declaration of Ahner Sinclair, 



I, Abner Sinclair, of the city of Victoria, now a hunter on the " Ocean 

 Belle," declare : 



That this is my first year as a seal-hunter. Was out last year as a 

 boat-puller. 



591 



