APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OP GREAT BRITAIN. 625 



Declaration of John Henry HaaTce. 



Dominion of Canada, 



Province of British Columbia, City of Victoria, 

 I, Jolm Henry Haake, of the city of Victoria, in the Province of 

 British Cohinibia, seal-liuuter, do solemnly and sincerely state and 

 declare as Ibllows: 



1. That I have been seal-hunting in Behring Sea and on the Pacific 

 Coast for the past five years, the first two years being engaged as a 

 boat-puller, and the last three years being engaged as a hunter. 



2. That I have been engaged on the sealing-schooner " Walter L. 

 Eich " for two years ; on the sealing schooner "Ocean Belle" for one 

 year; and on the sealing schooner "Walter A. Earle" for one year. 



3. That in the year 1890 I hunted seals in the stern-boat of the 

 schooner " Walter L. Rich," and secured 151 seals altogether, of these 

 107 were secured in Behring Sea. 



4. Til at during tlie said season of 1890 I killed and lost not more 

 than seven seals at the most. 



5. That in the year 1891 I was engaged as a hunter on board the 

 schooner "Ocean Belle," and secured 275 seals. 



6. That during the said season of 1891 1 killed and lost not more than 

 twelve seals at tlie most. 



7. That during the season of 1892 I was engaged as a hunter on 

 board the schooner " Walter A. Earle," and secured 352 seals. 



8. That during the season of 1892 I killed and lost not more than 

 fourteen seals at the most. 



9. I consider myself a fair average seal-hunter, and T am sure that I 

 do not strike many seals that are wounded and afterwards die; in fact, 

 there are very few such instances. 



10. I shoot at a sleeping seal when 12 or 15 yards from it, and the 

 average distance at which hunters shoot at " travellers" is about 35 



yards. 

 65 11. I have often seen seals in schools, and frequently have seen 



them in schools south of Cape Flattery. 



12. Male and female seals usually travel together, but I have known 

 of cases where males travel together and females together. 



13. In September of this year, while we were proceeding homeward, 

 and while in the North Pacific Ocean, we saw a few seals. 



14. During the season of 1892 I secured quite a number of barren 

 female seals — by a barren female seal, I mean one that has no pup in 

 her. 



15. The total coast catch of the schooner "Walter A. Earle" during 

 the season of 1892 was 1,325 seals, and the greater j)ortion of them were 

 males. 



10. I found the seals as plentiful during the season of 1892 as any 

 previous year, and, in fact, I never saw them so plentiful on any previ- 

 ous year as I did during the season of 1892. 



17. I have seen seals cohabiting in the water, and have killed both 

 male and female. 



18. A sleeping seal never ginks when it is shot in the head, and I 

 have frequently seen them float for five minutes. 



And 1 make this solemn declaration, conscientiously believing the 

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

 Oaths." 



(Signed) J. H. Haake. 



B S, PT YIU 40 



