APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 597 



Declaration of LuTce McOrath. 



I, Luke McGratli, of the city of Victoria, now a hunter in the "Dora 

 Diewind," a sealing-schooner, declare : 



That I have been sealing two seasons. Last year I was on the " Ocean 

 Belle." I killed 193 seals that I was sure of, and wounded not more 

 than 20 others. Of the 193 I secured 191. I got more in Behring Sea 

 than outside of the Sea. More than half of my catch were females. 

 Seals will float as a rule a much longer time than it will take to get to 

 them. There was only one of the 193 I killed last year that was sink- 

 ing when I got to it. This year I have killed 18 seals, and did not sink 

 any of them. Seals were very wild this year, and I shot at them at 

 long range. I think I wounded 10, but don't think that any of them 

 would die. I have found that seals eat salmon principally along the 

 coast, but squid principally in Behring Sea; cod also. Last year I 

 noticed a good many barren cows among those taken, but not any this 

 year. For the time we have been out I saw many more seals this year 

 than last, but they are much harder to get at. Seals are much harder 

 to get when they are in bunches than when alone. I never saw seals 

 cohabiting in Behring Sea, but about the middle of May this year saw 

 a male and female standing up in the water with their flippers around 

 one another, and I suppose that they were cohabiting. 



(Signed) Luke McGkath. 



Port Etches, June 18, 1892. 



47 Declaration of Captain Henry F. Sieward. 



I, Henry F. Sieward, of the city of Victoria, now captain of the 

 "Dora Sieward," a sealing schooner, declare: 



That 1 first engaged in sealing in the year 1888 — I was then captain 

 of the "Araunah"— in 1889 and 1890 on the "Walter L. Eich" and 

 " Ocean Belle," and last year on the " Geneva." 



I hunt myself, and from my experience I would say that from 4 to 6 

 per cent, of the seals killed sink and are lost. The percentage of seals 

 that are wounded and escape is very small. I make a rule of never 

 permitting a seal to be shot at from the schooner unless we are certain 

 to get it, so that none shot in that way are ever lost. It takes three 

 or four minutes to lower a boat, but the seals float long enough to allow 

 us to get them. Most of the seals caught are sleepers, and are caught 

 when from 15 to 25 yards. They are very seldom lost. 



I left Victoria about the 5th May, and cruized as far south as Quill- 

 nite Eiver. Not many seals were found off Cape Flattery. 1 then 

 cruized north, keeping as a rule from 15 to 100 miles from the coast. I 

 found the seals abundant first about the 23rd May off Mount Fair- 

 weather. I remained on the Fairweather grounds until the 1st June, 

 when the seals became scarce. My best catch was made there. I then 

 went west as far as Portlock Bank, but did not find many seals. 



Seals travel a good deal in bunches of from five to twenty. They 

 are harder to get when in bunches. As a rule all ages and sexes are 

 mixed together. I have never kept an account by which I could say 

 anything of the proportion of males and females in my catch. 



Squid seems to be the favourite food of seals, but they eat any fish 

 they can get. 



I only noticed one or two barren females in my catch, but there may 

 have been more. I have got seals in milk in Behring Sea 120 miles 



