608 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



10. I have never noticed teats on either male or female seals, except 

 those in milk. I saw this year a pair of seals having connection in the 

 water. It was on Fairweather Grounds. I was quite close at the 

 time, waiting to get a good chance at the female, which was quite under 

 water, when the male plunged, and I lost them. 



11. The "Annie E. Paint" left the Commander Islands grounds this 

 year about the 21st Sei^tember, and reached Victoria the 15th October. 

 I saw seals in the North Pacific all the way over every day. We were 

 100 miles from the Aleutian Islands at the nearest. We ran out of 

 them about Queen Charlotte Islands. 



12. That I have always found it harder to get at female seals than 

 males, especially cows carrying pups. They are very watchful, and 

 seem to be always on the alert. 



And I make this solemn declaration, conscientiously believing the 

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

 Oaths." 



(Signed) George Egberts. 



Subscribed and declared by the said George Eoberts before me, a 

 Kotary Public duly commissioned, resiuing and practising at the city 

 of Victoria, in the Province of British Columbia, this 20th day of 

 October, A. d. 1892. 



[seal.] (Signed) Arthur L. Belyea, 



A Notary FuMic in and for the Province of British Columbia, 



54 Declaration of Matthew Ryan. 



Dominion of Canada, 



Province of British Columbia, City of Victoria, 



1, Matthew Ryan, of the city of Victoria, in the Province of British 

 Columbia, do solemnly declare as follows: 



1. That I have been sealing ten years. Last year I was a boat- 

 steerer; this year I was a hunter. 



2. The hunter I was with last year got 319 seals, and lost 12 or 15. 

 This year I secured 249, and lost 7. I think I am a good average 

 hunter, and such a one ought not to lose more than I do. We lose 

 very few by wounding them, and then having them die — none worth 

 speaking of. I shot at a sleeping seal when from 12 to 15 yards from it. 

 I have never seen seals in schools. 



3. Our vessel was on the coast this year about the same time as last 

 year, and I saw a good many more seals than I did last year. We took 

 about as many females as males. On the Russian side this year we took 

 more males than females. We took over 500 seals there, and there 

 were not over 100 females. Never looked to see whether males had 

 teats. 



4. In Behring Sea— American side— last year we got, I think, more 

 males than females, certainly not more females than males. 



5. Never saw seals cohabiting; other sealers have told me they have 

 seen it. 



6. More Indians use guns now than use spears. 



7. I never was out with Brown, who was a hunter on the "Corwin" 

 this year, but have heard he was a very poor hunter, about as poor as 

 could be got. 



8. The above statements have been read over to me, and I declare 

 that they are all true, and that there is nothing more than I wish to 

 say on the seal question. 



