APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 643 



bunches are always wild. The best hunting is always among scattered 



seals. 

 76 0. This year I saw more seals off Cape Flattery in January 



than at any other place. They were pretty well in bunches and 

 hard to get. The bunches were made uj) of all kinds of seals from old 

 bulls to 2-year-olds. I have never seen a large band of seals of any one 

 kind. 



7. That I have noticed the teats on male seals as well as females ; there 

 is no difference in this respect between the skins of males and females. 



8. That in both years I have been sealing I have got a good many bar- 

 ren females, principally on the coast. At least one-quarter of all the 

 females I got were barren. Pregnant cows are generally harder to get 

 than other seals. They are more restless and don't sleep so well as the 

 bulls. 



9. One day this year, on Copper Island grounds, there were seven or 

 eight schooners, together with all their boats, out hunting. That day I 

 found one dead seal on the water; it had been freshly killed. There 

 were that day between thirty-five and forty hunters at that place shoot- 

 ing from G o'clock in the morning till 9 at night. That is the only one 

 I ever saw. 



And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the 

 same to be true, and by virtue of "The Act resi^ecting Extra- Judicial 

 Oaths." 



(Signed) Isaac O'Quinn. 



Subscribed and declared by the said Isaac O'Quinn before me, a 

 Notary Public duly commissioned, and residing and practising at the 

 city of Victoria, in the Province of British Columbia, this 24th day of 

 October, A. d. 1892. 



[SEAL.] (Signed) Arthur L. Belvea, 



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



Declaration of Robert E. McKiel. 



Dominion of Canada, 



Province of British Columbia, City of Victoria, 



I, Robert E. McKiel, of the city of Victoria, in the Province of Brit- 

 ish Columbia, do solemnly declare as follows: 



1. I made my first sealing trip from San Francisco in 1887 on the 

 <'Mary Taylor," and have been out sealing every year since. 



2. I have been out as master every trip. In 1888 I was on the same 

 vessel (" Mary Taylor"), and in 18S9 was on the "Beatrice." In 1890 I 

 was on the "E. B. Marvin," and last year on the "Maud S.," and was 

 out on that vessel this year. 



3. I have never acted as hunter, but of course have gone out in a 

 boat and killed a few seals. 



4. I have noticed no difi'erence in the number of seals that frequent 

 the American coast, and this year saw fully as many as ever before, and 

 my hunters say this too. 



5. There are but few seals lost by sinking, certainly not more than 5 

 per cent. I heard my hunters counting up their losses this year, and 

 for over 1,700 seals that were got by them about 40 were lost. I have 

 altogether killed 52 seals and lost but one of them. There are some 

 seals badly wounded that die afterwards, but the number is very small; 

 if they are that badly wounded, the hunters are almost sure to get them. 



