626 APPElSiDIX TO COUNTER-CA.se of great BRITAIN. 



Signed and declared by the said John Henry Haake before me, the 

 Undersigned, a Notary Pubhc duly commissioned, and residing and 

 practising at the city of Victoria, in the Province of British Columbia, 

 this 21st day of October, A. D. 1892. 



[SEAL.] (Signed) A. L. P,elyea, 



A Notary Public in and for the Province of British Columbia. 



Declaration of James Shields. 



Dominion of Canada, 



Province of British Columbia, City of Victoria, 



I, James Shields, of the city of Victoria, in the Province of British 

 Columbia, do solemnly declare as follows: 



1. I have been six seasons seal hunting. I went as a hunter each 

 year. I have been out on the "Pathfinder," the "Ariel," the "Viva," 

 and the "E. B.Marvin." 



2. I remember within a seal or two the number of seals I killed and 

 received, and those I lost. I kept a diary every season but last, in which 

 I noted down the seals killed. In 1887 I got 319 seals and lost a good 

 many; that was my first year, and I lacked experience. I lost, I believe, 

 between 5 and 10 per cent, of the number I killed. The next year, 1888, 

 I had secured 495 seals, and 5 per cent, would fully cover the nnmber 

 lost. In 1889, we made a poor season. I got 350 skins, and lost by 

 sinking or crippling fewer seals than the year before. I have not with 

 me the record for 1890, but I got the next largest catch to my brother 

 William. The schooner took over 2,100. I lost that year not more than 

 two seals that I know were killed and sank. In calm weather we are 

 almost certain to get a wounded seal, but when the weather is rough, 

 and the seal goes to windward, one is sometimes lost, when the boat 

 cannot be pulled against the wind and sea, but very few are lost in this 

 way. It is a common thing for a i^oor hunter, or a man who has bad 

 luck, to come on board and say that he struck seals and lost them, but 

 this is only an excuse. Last year we had a poor year for our schooner 

 was seized. I took 133 seals and did not lose a seal that I know of, not 

 one. I am sure that I did not badly wound or cripple many seals that 

 got away. I do not know of any. When a seal sinks there is a streak 

 of blood in the water that shows it. 



This year I got 308 seals on the coast, and lost 3 that I know of; 

 there were not more than 2 or 3 that were wounded that would die 

 afterwards of wounds. I have noticed that a wounded seal is like a 

 deer and some other animals; it gets better after being shot, and often 

 when you think one is to be surely got, it revives and goes away. If a 

 seal is badly wounded, I consider it as good as got, for it either gets 

 worse or better; if the former we are sure of it, if the latter he will get 

 away and get well. 



3. I never kept count of the proportion of males and females taken, but 

 of the larger seals there are more females than males, I think; of the 

 smaller seals there are more males than females — this is on the coast — 

 a good deal depends on where you are ih Behriug Sea; in connection 

 with the sex of the seals, my own experience is I have taken more males 

 than females. I would not like to swear to that, but will swear that a 

 good half were males — this is in Behring Sea. 



4. I have sealed in the sea — Behring Sea — four years. I have not 

 sealed on the Russian side of Behring Sea. I have gone into Behring 



