APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 641 



I have read the above statements carefully over, and swear that they 

 are all true, and that no consideration was given me for having made 

 them. 



(Signed) TiiEO. Magnesen. 



Sworn to before me at Victoria this 5th day of October, A. d. 1 892. 

 [SEAL.] (Signed) Thomas Shotbolt, J. P, 



Declaration of Wentivorth E. BaJcer. 



Dominion of Canada, 



Province of British Cohimbia, City of Victoria, 



I, Wentworth E. Baker, of the city of Victoria, in the Province of 

 British Columbia, do solemnly declare as follows: 



1. That I have been five seasons sealing as a master each year; four 

 years on the " Viva," and this year I was on the " C. H. Tupper." The 

 first four years I hunted from the stern-boat. 



2. The first year I got 75, and 8 sank ; not more than 5 the second 

 year. I got 67 and lost very few indeed. It is very rarely that a seal 

 Is lost. The third year I got S6, and did not lose more than 4. The 



next year I kept count; I got 55, and lost 1 by sinking. 1 am 

 75 a fair average hunter. Talking with my men I find that this is 



about the percentage lost, but this year fewer were lost. It is a 

 common excuse of a hunter who has had bad luck during the day to say 

 that seals sank. The hunters have three or four different kinds of gaffs 

 and spears, some as long as the boat, and with these the seal is certain 

 to be got; they carry one for each boat. A seal does not sink rapidly, 

 and as the water is clear the seal can be seen, and they can tell just the 

 spot it sank bj'^ the bubbles tliat rise to the surface. 



3. I saw quite as many seals this year as I ever saw before. Other 

 captains I have talked with found them this way too. 



4. I ha.ve seen seals in schools on the coast, both north and south of 

 Vancouver Island, and when in schools they are more difficult to get. 



5. Cow seals with young are getting very much wilder and harder to 

 get. I notice this in a lesser degree in the males as well, but not in very 

 young seals. 



6. I went last year to the Asiatic coast, and this year as well. 



7. I have gone into Behring Sea through the 172ud Pass, and found 

 seals about 20 miles inside the pass. 



8. It is quite easy to see that male seals have teats, and it is not possi- 

 ble to tell a male from a female seal by the skin. 



9. The only difference between the seals on the two sides of the Beh- 

 ring Sea that I have seen is that the seals are darker there (the Eussian 

 side). 



10. I never saw seals cohabiting in the water, but I have heard from 

 my hunters that they do so. 



11. Along the coast in my catch this year and last year I got about 

 25 per cent, of cows. I used to get more than this, but the cows are 

 wilder now. On the Fairweather Crounds this year the greater num- 

 ber of the seals taken by me were bulls. On the American side of 

 Behring Sea the cows school together and bulls together, and the 

 larger catches are made among the bulls, as the cows are travelling 

 back and forward all the time, and where there are many to-day there 

 will be none to-morrow. 



B S, PT YIII 41 



