APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 617 



4. I no not believe that many seals are badly wouinled, and die after- 

 wards and are lost, for when a seal is wounded and lives a little while 

 afterwards it will always float when it does die. When there are so 

 many boats close to one another killing seals, many such floating seals 

 would be seen if there were many wounded ones that died, but as a 

 matter of fact I have, in all the time I have been sealing, seen only 

 three such seals. 



5. I have seen seals travelling in schools very often, and have seen 

 as many together off the Columbia River as I ever did anywhere, but 

 when they are in schools it is very hard to get near them, and the 

 hunters do not like to see them in schools. 



6. Males and females travel together on the coast, and mixed with 

 them are the yearlings. 



7. Last year I saw more seals on the coast than 1 saw in any year 

 but 1890. This year I was behind the seals, and did not see so many 

 as last year. Seals are not found in the same places every year, and 

 where I got a great many last year, I found few or none this year, and 

 in other places I found a great many more seals than I did last year. 



8. I do not think there is the slightest danger of exterminating or 

 seriously diminishing the seals by hunting them, as they are growing 

 more wild and wary every year, and when the catches are not sufiBcient 

 to pay expenses, the number of schooners employed will soon decrease. 



9. I once saw seals cohabiting in the water, and have often heard 

 my hunters speak of it. 



10. My coast catch has always been composed of about an equal 

 number of males and females, and about the same in Behring Sea. 



11. I have been sealing two seasons on the Asiatic side of Behring 

 Sea, and have not been able to detect any difference between the seals 

 on that side and those on the American side. 



12. Besides the schooners that have been seized, I have not heard of 

 any vessels sealing in Behring Sea, and do not believe that there were 

 any other vessels there. 



13. I think that if the seals were allowed to breed quietly on the 

 islands, and were not killed in Behring Sea in July or August, that 

 that would be all the protection that was needed, and even without a 

 close season the number of schooners would soon be regulated by the 

 catches made. 



14. I have never been close to the Pribyloff Islands, and have never 

 had any trouble in keeping as far from them as I wished, even in the 

 most foggy weather. 



And I make this solemn declaration, conscientiously believing the 

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

 Oaths." 



(Signed) Wm. O'Leary. 



Declared before me, at the city of Victoria, this 14th day of October, 

 1892. 

 [SEAL.] (Signed) D. M. Eberts, 



A Notary Public in and for the Frovince of British Columbia, 



