C28 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



2. In 1890 I got 320 seals and lost 10 or 12. In 1891 I got 280. I 

 kept count of tliose I lost last year, and they number 5. This year, 

 1892, I got 142, and by actual count lost by sinking 3. This is about 

 the average loss by sinking made by average hunters. 



3. 1 shoot sleeping seals from 10 to 12 yards distant. "Travellers" 

 I shoot from 30 to GO yards distant. Most of the seals I lost by sink- 

 ing were "travellers." About 70 per cent, of all the seals I got were 

 sleepers. 



4. I have seen bands or schools of seals in January off San Francisco 

 Harbour. This was in 1890. Last year I saw bands of hundreds and 

 thousands of seals off the mouth of the Columbia River in the months 

 of February and March, The bands were made up of both sexes of 

 all ages, except old bulls ("wigs"). 



5. When seals are in bands they are hard to get at. Hunters do a 

 great deal better among scattered seals, because most of them are 

 sleepers. There are always watchers in the bands who soon wake up 

 those asleep when a boat comes near. 



C. Of the seals I got on the coast the males and females were about 

 equal in number; the farther north I got the larger proportion of males 

 I got. Of the females about 25 per cent, would be with young, the 

 remainder barren cows and young females. On the Asiatic side I got 

 no cows with pups in them, but once and awhile a cow in milk. I have 

 been over there two seasons. 



7. Last year, 1891, the "City of San Diego" left the Copper Island 

 grounds on or about the 28th August. I saw seals all the way over to 

 Cape Flattery. We sailed over from Attn Island in as straight a line 

 as we could for Cape Flattery. The year before we left there on the 

 "Hamilton Lewis" about the middle of August. I saw seals all the 

 way over in mid-ocean. That year we made as direct as possible for 

 San Francisco. 



8. Male seals are marked with teats the same as cows, but the teats 

 are smaller, and do not grow as the seal grows. 



9. I have seen seals in thousands off the mouth of the Columbia. 

 This was particularly so in 1890 and 1891. Also on Fairweather 

 Grounds and oft" Cross Sound I have seen great numbers of seals. 

 This year there were more seals on the coast than in the two previous 

 years. I don't think seals are decreasing in any numbers; on the con- 

 trary, there seems to be more on the coast. 



10. I have seen seals cohabiting in the water. I remember this dis- 

 tinctly on two occasions. I got both male and female both times. 



11. The only difterence I have noticed in seals on the two sides of the 

 Pacific is that the Asiatic seals are a shade darker on the average, and 

 taking the average of a catch a little larger. I could not tell the skins 

 of the two apart if I saw them together, except by the darker colour. 

 Some seals are darker than others on the American side. 



12. Last year, 1891, when the " City of San Diego" was crossing 

 Behring Sea from Amutka Pass to Copper Island, we passed small 



bands and bunches of seals travelling rapidly north-easterly ; this 

 67 took place on three different days. The last lot we met were 



aboiit 150 miles from the Copper Islands. These seals were the 

 same kind of seals we get at Copper Island, and I am fully satisfied 

 they were crossing Behring Sea to the Pribyloff Islands. This was 

 between the 5th and 12th July, 1891. 



And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the 

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

 Oaths." 



(Signed) Geo. F. Feench. 



