606 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



not lose any by sinking. The following year I kept count of the seals I 

 lost. I got 460 skins and lost 11. Three seasons ago I took about 300 

 skins and lost 8. I do not remember the figures for last year, but think 

 I got about 260. I lost only one on the coast, but don't remember how 

 many in Behring Sea. This year I got 147, and lost 4 seals by sinking. 

 A seal that is badly wounded is almost certain to be got. Out of all the 

 seals I have killed, I remember of only one shot sleeping and sinking, 

 and nearly all the seals we get are sleeping seals. Seals are much wilder 

 than they were before. When we first commenced hunting seals we used 

 to sail up near them, but now we have to lower the sail as soon as we see 

 them and row towards them. 



4. This year I had part Indians and part white men. 



5. It will be impossible to exterminate the seals by hunting them at 

 sea, or lessen their number, for they are getting wilder all the time, and 

 more difficult to get. The past two years I have seen as many seals as I 

 ever saw — as many as there were twelve years ago. 



6. My Indians this year used guns, but those I was with in former 

 years used spears. Now that they have guns they prefer them. 



7. I shoot at a sleeping seal when 40 or 50 feet away from it. 



8. I have seen seals in schools south of Cape Flattery, as well as 

 farther north, but it is almost impossible to get any of them. 



9. When we first began hunting we took more females than males, 

 but now we get more males. The last two years we have taken a great 

 many young males from 2 to 4 years old; the females now seem to stay 

 farther out at sea than they did. 



10. I have been four seasons in Behring Sea. Last year the seals 

 were about equally divided there, but before that they were, I think, 

 more females than males, I have seen a great many barren females. 



11. I have gone into Behring Sea through the 172nd Pass and seen 

 seals there, both inside and outside the pass. I believe these seals go the 

 Eussian islands, and had evidence of this last year, for we saw seals 

 away to the westward of the 172nd Pass. There is no difference that 

 I can see in the seals that go to the two groups of islands, unless it is 

 that the seals on the Russian side are a little darker in colour. 



12. I have noticed that male seals have teats, but don't know that 

 they all have. I have noticed it in young seals. 



13. I have often seen seals cohabiting in the water. The bull gets on 

 top of the cow, and she of course sinks, but her nose sticks out. I 

 have watched them in this position from five to ten minutes. I have 

 killed both the male and female often ; they are very easy to get when 

 they are doing this. I try to kill the female first, and wait until she 

 rises out of the water as they bob up and down. The male will stop 

 about when the female was shot. At ordinary times, if we shoot one 

 of two seals, the other makes off. 



14. If there were soundings I could depend upon, I would never have 

 difficulty in telling my position when in Behring Sea, no matter how 

 thick the fog was. There would be no danger of drifting near the 

 islands, for we could anchor in 150 fathoms. I have, when in a sealing 

 schooner, anchored in 110 fathoms. 



15. I have carefully read the statements written down in this declara- 

 tion, and declare that they are all true; that I have received no con- 

 sideration for having made them, and that there is nothing further I 

 wish to say, or that I would like inserted in this declaration. 



And 1 make this solemn declaration, conscientiously believing the 

 same to be true, and by virtue of " The Act respecting Extra- Judicial 

 Oaths." 



(Signed) Abel Douglas. 



