APPENDIX TO COUNTEK-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 599 



This year I have taken more females than males; about three-fifths 

 of my catch were females. One year I hunted off Kadiak, and was 

 there before the seals. T found that the male came first. There were 

 a great many barren cows among the last seals I took this season. I 

 have killed cows in milk at least 90 miles from the Pribylott' Islands. In 

 1888 I came south from Behring Sea about longitude 175° west, and 

 caught seals there. This was in the latter part of August. In 1886, 

 late in August, we killed seals 30 or 40 miles south of 172nd Pass, 

 between Unimak Pass and Saanak Island. In 1887 I saw seals quite 

 abundant the latter part of July. In 1889 we got seals about 

 48 Kadaik, off and on, all summer. In 1890, late in August, I killed 

 a sleei)ing seal off the Shumagin Islands, and saw others. 



I don't think that seals are getting any scarcer, at least at sea, but 

 they are getting wilder. Last year, in Behring Sea, seals were as plen- 

 tiful as I have ever seen them. 



I have seen seals cohabiting in the water in Behring Sea; the male 

 would cover the female, who would be kept under the water for some 

 time. 



(Signed) 0. F. Dillon. 



Port Etches, June 17, 1892. 



Declaration of Ralph Starrat. 



I, Ealph Starrat, of the city of Victoria, now a hunter on the sealing- 

 schooner "Oscar and Hattie," declare that I have been out as a hunter 

 three years. 



I got 111 seals this year, and sank 3 or 4. Besides these, I wounded 

 25 or 30; of these, I don't know how many would be likely to die. I 

 shoot at a sleeping seal when about 15 yards from it, and never at a 

 travelling seal when more than 50 yards away. Tliree years ago, off the 

 Columbia River, I saw a school of seals with a hundred or so of seals 

 in it. It was a fine day, but it was not possible to get near them. 

 There are more cows than males among the seals. Yearlings generally 

 travel alone behind the other seals. The principal food of the seal along 

 the coast is salmon, but they eat any kind of fish. I got this year two 

 female seals that were barren. They were about 2 years old. 



I have seen a very few seals in the autumn in the ocean between the 

 Aleutian Islands and Vancouver Island. Seals are harder to get when 

 in bunches than when one is alone. 



(Signed) Ealph Starrat. 



Unalaska, September 13, 1892. 



Declaration of James McRae. 



I, James McRae, of the city of Victoria, now a hunter in the schooner 

 " Opcar and Hattie," declare that I have been seal-hunting two years, 

 one year as a boat steerer and one year as a hunter. 



I killed 69 seals this year, of which 3 sank — there was only one 

 that I had to reach down for with the gaff. The hunter in the boat I 

 steered last year killed 229 seals, of which 15 sank. It is very seldom 

 that a seal will sink before it can be got to. In April and May last 

 year, we saw a great many seals all along the coast and on the Fair- 



