APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 593 



I have killed 152 seals this year, and of these I lost only 2, securing 

 150. They were about half males and half females. No barren females 

 were taken by me. Not more than three or four were wounded by me 

 that got away ; if they are wounded we generally get them. Some seals 

 float a long time; if they float more than five minutes or so, they will 

 stay up an indefinite time. No matter how quickly a seal may sink, it 

 can as a rule be got. The two I lost were when I shot two, and left the 

 first while I shot the second. I shoot at a sleeping seal when about 15 

 yards away ; a travelling seal I would seldom shoot at when more than 

 50 or 60 yards away. Seals were found most abundant by me off 

 Cross Sound this year. I found seals in bunches more than singly this 

 year; it is very much harder to get at them when they are that way. 

 Grey pups stay pretty well together, the other ages and both sexes 

 mixed together. From this out we will get more males than females, as 

 the females will be going to the breeding-islands. Seals eat salmon, 

 cod, and squid. I have found squid in them all the way up along the 

 coast and in Behring Sea as well. 



I went over to the Eussian side of Behring Sea last year, and saw a 

 few scattered seals all the way across. I have found the seals to be 

 more plentiful this year, but they are harder to get. 



(Signed) . Maurice Edwards. 



Port Etches, June 17, 1892. 



Declaration of George F. French, 



I, George F. French, of the city of San Francisco, now a hunter on 

 the sealing-schooner " City of San Diego," declare : • 



That I have been sealing three years. 



The percentage of seals that are killed and lost is about 5 in 100, I 

 think. This year I killed 143, and have lost 3 only. It is easy to tell 

 when a seal is badly wounded, and I do not think that many are wounded 

 and afterwards die. If a seal is badly wounded, we are almost certain 

 to get it. It is easy to tell when a seal has been wounded by the blood 

 in the water ; a few drops will colour the water for a long distance 

 around. I shoot at a sleeping seal when within about 25 feet of it. If 

 a seal is lively, I would shoot at it when 50 yards away, but not farther. 

 I would then be almost certain to get it. 



Seals are seldom lost when shot with a gun, and rifles are now seldom 

 used. Unless a seal sinks at once it will float for a long time — until a 

 hole is picked in it. A seal that is going to sink will not float more than 

 half a minute, but there are not many seals that are shot so that they 

 sink at once. 



I have seen seals in bunches of 20 or 25, and have noticed that, while 

 the sexes are generally mixed together, seals of one size are sometimes 

 found travelling together. This is especially true of yearliugs. It is 

 difficult to get a seal if several are together, and if I got one out of six 

 that were together I would think myself lucky. Seals are beginning 

 to understand what a boat is, and keep away from it. Seals feed on 

 squid principally, but I have seen them with a fish like a mackerel, and 

 once with cod, never with salmon. They will eat any kind of fish, I 

 suppose, but squid seems to be their favourite food both on the Alaskan 

 coast and on the Eussian side. 



Out of the 143 seals taken by me this year, between 30 and 40 were 

 barren. Not more than 60 of the seals taken by me this year were 

 B S, PT VIII 38 



