APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CARE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 631 



8. I use only a sliot-giiii, and slioot sleepers from 10 to 20 yards, and 

 " travellers" from 25 to 75 yards range. Fully 80 per cent, of all the 

 seals I got were sleepers. 



9. I do not think many seals I wounded escaped and afterwards died. 

 I remember only one or two instances of wounding a seal and it escap- 

 ing, and these were slightly wounded. 



10. I found one dead seal the first year 1 was out. I examined this 

 seal, did not find any wounds upon it, and believe it had died a natural 

 death; it had been dead some time; it was a female. 



11. I once saw a male and female cohabiting in Behring Sea. 1 got 

 both of them, the cow first; the bull stayed around and I got him too. 



12. This year the " Maud S." left the Commander Island grounds 

 the 10th September, took water at Amchitka Island, and sailed direct 

 for Victoiia. We saw scattered seals every day all the Avay over, 

 mostly 2-year and 3-year-old bulls, but some full grown males and 

 females. 



13. I saw more seals all along the coast this year than ever before, 

 but they are a lot wilder and hard to get. The first year I was out our 

 vessel got 700 in two months, and I did not see nearly as many as this 

 year, but they were tamer and easily got at. 



And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the 

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

 Oaths." 



(Signed) Fred. W. Strong. 



Subscribed and declared by the said Frederick W. Strong before me, 

 a Notary Public 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) Arthur L. Bblyea, 



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



Declaration of Andrew Mathison. 



Dominion of Canada, 



Province of British Golumhia, City of Victoria, 



I, Andrew Mathison, of the city of Victoria, in the Province of 

 British Columbia, seal-hunter, do solemnly declare: 



1. I have been a fur-seal hunter in the North Pacific Ocean and 

 Behring Sea for seven years. In 1880 and 1887 1 was on the schooner 

 "Pathfinder;" in 1888 and 1889 on the "Annie C. Moore;" in 1890 on 

 the "Triumph;" in 1891 on the "May Belle;" and in 1892 on the "Sea 

 Lion." 



2. I have always used a shot-gun; never a rifle. I shoot sleepers at 

 from 10 to 20 yards range, and "travellers" at from 20 to 40 yards. 



3. I don't remember the exact number of seals I got the first two 

 years I was out, nor the number I lost by sinking. In 1890 I got 151 

 seals, and did not lose more than half a dozen. In 1891 I got 371, and 

 lost about 17. I think that was the exact number. In 1892 I got 341, 

 aud sunk 8 or 9. 



4. That more than half the seals I got on the coast in each year 



69 were females. Most of these were young females and barren 



cows. About one quarter of the females would be with pup on 



the coast, but in Behring Sea I got no cows in pup. Some of the fenuiles 



there early in the season would be in milk, but not very many. 



