602 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



yards from tliem; at "travelling" seals never more than 40 yards. Six 

 years ago I saw a school of GO or 70 close together. I saw more seals 

 off Cape St. Elias this year than anywhere else. I have found fewer 

 seals this year than I saw last year. Males and females as a rule travel 

 together, but single seals are more often females. I got more females 

 than males this year. On the west coast I found the seals to eat salmon 

 and squid as a rule. Among the seals I took this year were two or 

 three barren females. 



When hunting off Kadiak five years ago I saw females in milk in 

 May. They had dropped their pups somewhere — on Kadiak, I suppose. 

 I have taken seals as far west as the Four Mountain Pass. Last year, 

 about the 12th July, I saw young seals playing about there. In 1890 

 we killed a seal in mid-ocean when returning to Victoria in September 

 on the "E. B. Marvin," and in November of the same year, when on the 

 "Triumph," I saw four seals 300 or 400 miles oft" Queen Charlotte Islands. 



Seals were harder to get at this year than I ever saw them before. A 

 seal is harder to get when several are together than when one is alone. 

 A man seldom gets two now. The seals are learning what a boat is 

 now, and will not wait to be shot. 



I have seen seal cohabiting in Behring Sea; once I shot two 



60 cohabiting, and shot the cow first, and afterwards the bull. The 



cow was a young cow that had never had a young one. I would 



take an affidavit to that effect if in Victoria. Many seal-hunters have 



told me that they had seen the same thing. 



(Signed) Joseph Brown. 



Unalaska, September 13, 1892. 



Declaration of John Townsend. 



Dominion of Canada, 



Province of British Cohimhia, City of Victoria, 



I, John Townsend, of the city of Victoria, in the Province of British 

 Columbia, seal-hunter, do solemnly and sincerely state and declare as 

 follows : 



1. That I have been engaged in seal-hunting for the past three years. 



2. In the year 1890 I was mate on the schooner " Maggie Mac," and 

 went out seal-hunting in the stern boat. I killed during that year 

 between sixty and seventy seals, and do not remember losing any of 

 them. 



3. In the year 1891 1 was engaged as hunter on board the schooner 

 "Viva," and secured 270 seals, and only lost about 10 during the 

 whole season. 



4. During the present year I was on board the schooner " Mary Tay- 

 lor," and secured 172 seals, and only lost 3 by sinking during the entire 

 season. 



5. There are very few seals shot at and badly enough wounded to die 

 that are not secured. 



6. I never lost a sleeping seal that I had killed, and it is very seldom 

 that a seal will sink. 



7. I shoot at a sleeping seal when about 15 yards away from it. 



8. I have killed a travelling seal when 60 yards away, but I seldom 

 shoot at a seal when that distance away. 



9. We found seals most plentiful this year about the 10th May, off 

 Mount Fairweather. 



