APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OP GREAT BRITAIN. 595 



them. I have found this year small bunches of seals of one sex and 

 age, sometimes grey pups, sometimes females, or balls. 



(Signed) Wallace M. Christian. 



Port Etches, June 17, 1892. 



Declaration of Captain E. G. Le Blanc. 



I, E.G. Le Blanc, at present captain of the "City of San Diego," a 

 sealing-schooner, sailing under the United States flag, declare: 



That this is the first year I have been engaged in sealing. 



I sailed from Victoria on the 11th day of February, and cruized as far 

 south as latitude 45° 40', where I found seals very plentiful, but the 

 weather was too rough to put out boats. We worked from there slowly 

 northward to Cape Cook. When we first left Victoria we took a few 

 seals off Cape Flattery. We found Cape Cook about 20th March. We 

 found a good many seal all along Vancouver Island, but they were most 

 abundant off Cape Cook. Our best spring catch was made at this time. 

 We cruized north from there, keeping from 30 to 80 miles from shore. 

 We have been as far west as longitude 150°. On Fairweather grounds, 

 where Pamplona Eocks are marked on the Chart, we made our best 

 catch. We have now 558 skins ; 89 of them were of the spring catch. 



On the way up about a dozen seals were shot from the schooner. To 

 get there a boat had always to be lowered. Only one was lost. Off 

 Mount St. Elias we passed through a band of seals about 30 miles 

 across, but none were got. The sea was too rough to let a boat be 

 lowered. Later on four boats were out for an hour, and 13 seals were 

 got. On 1st May, off Sitka, we took 58 seals in one day. Out of these 

 there were 54 bulls. 



(Signed) B. 0. Le Blanc. 



Port Etches, June 17, 1892. 



Declaration of Peter Jolihis, 



I, Peter Jolibis, of the city of Victoria, now a hunter on the sealing- 

 schooner "City of San Diego," declare: 



That I have been sealing for three years, last year and the year 

 before in the " Pioneer." There seem to be as many or more seals this 

 year as other years. I have so far taken 129 seals. In getting these I 

 killed and lost four seals. Very few wounded seals escape and die, for 

 if at all badly wounded we are sure to get them. When a seal is shot 

 we always chase it, and if it is bleeding it soon tires out and is easily 

 got. I shoot at a sleeping seal, when there is a little sea on, when I am 

 from 4 to 20 feet away. If it is perfectly calm, when 20 yards away 

 sometimes. We shoot at a seal that is awake and lively when we are 

 about 30 or 40 yards away. A seal will sometimes float for hours, and 

 sometimes will go down almost at once, but there is almost always time 

 to get up to them. I never but once have seen a large band of 

 46 seals together. That was on the Fairweather grounds, and we 

 were three or four hours in going through them. It was blowing- 

 hard, and we got none of them. Grey pups often travel together, but I 

 have always seen the other kinds of seals mixed together. 



Out of my catch this year there are many more males than females. I 

 have only taken a few barren cows this year, but I killed two cows it 



