APPENDIX TO. COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 629 



Subscribed and declared before me by the said George F. Frencli, a 

 Notary Public duly commissioued, aud residing and practising at the 

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

 of October, 1892. 



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



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



Declaration of Oscar Scarf, 



Dominion of Canada, 



Province of British Columbia, City of Victoria, 



I, Oscar Scarf, of the city of Victoria, in the Province of British 

 Columbia, seal-hunter, do solemnly declare as follows: 



1. I have hunted fur-seals in the North Pacific Ocean and Behring 

 Sea for six years past. I was two years on the "Pioneer" (during one 

 of which she was called the " Pathfinder"), two years on the "Viva," 

 one year on the " Carmolite," and this year, 1892, on the "Agnes Mac- 

 donald," all of which vessels sailed from the port of Victoria. 



2. In 1887, the first year I was out, I got 348 seals, and lost at the 

 most 10. In 1888 I got 683 seals, and lost by sinking (3. I am sure of 

 this, because I kept an accurate count of all I lost. The next year, 1889, 

 I got 597 seals, and lost 14 or 15 — more than I lost in any one year 

 before or since. In 1890 I got 443 seals, and lost by sinking 6. Last 

 year, 1891, I got 517, and lost 6 or 7, I am not quite sure which. This 

 year I got 200 seals, and lost by sinking only 2. This year I did not go 

 into Behring Sea, hence the small catch. 



3. I generally get the seals I wound, and if a seal is wounded lightly 

 he gets safely away 5 if badly wounded, I always get it. Very few, if 

 any, wounded seals that escape afterwards die. I believe this because 

 a dead seal is rarely discovered. I have very seldom found dead seals 

 floating; I only remember three or four in my experience. 



4. Many hunters use shot-guns only. I use the rifle a great deal. I 

 shoot sleepers with the gun at 10 to 20 yards range, and travelling seals 

 with the rifle at as long range as 100 yards. The seals I have lost are 

 lost principally in this way. 



5. I saw more seals off Cross Sound this year than I ever saw any- 

 where on the coast before, and altogether this year I saw many more 

 seals than ever before in my six years' experience. This has been the 

 experience of many other hunters as well as myself. 



6. I have seen seals in schools all along the coast, but it is hard to 

 get many when they travel that way. I have found males travelling 

 together and females together, but where the females are the males are 

 not far off. I have seen gi'ey pups mixed with other seals in the schools. 



7. The seals eat all kinds of fish, squid principally. I have often 

 killed seals with nothing in their stomachs. 



8. I have hunted five years in Behring Sea, and got the sexes in about 

 equal numbers, and it has been the same on the coast. I have never 

 got any young seals, and it has always puzzled me where the young 

 females were. Every year I got barren cows, 



9. On the return from Beliring Sea every year I have been there I 

 have seen seals in the North Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles from land. 

 I have often heard that seals haul out on the Scott Islands, but I have 

 never been there myself. 



10. It is difficult to see the teats of the female seal, and I have never 

 noticed teats on the male seal. 



