APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 651 



Declaration of Thomas H. Brown. 



Dominion of Canada, 



Province of British Gohimhia, City of Victoria, 



I, Thomas H. Brown, of the city of Victoria aud Province of British 

 Columbia, do solemnly declare as follows : 



1. I have been seal-hunting five years — the first year as a boat- 

 steerer, and the past four years as a hunter. 



2. In 1889 I was on the " Mary Ellen ;" in 1890 on the " Maggie 

 Mac;" and last year and this year on the "Maud S." 



3. I have kejjt count each year of the number of seals I have killed. 

 In 1889 I got 370, and lost less than 7 or 8. I am sure there were less 

 than that number lost by sinking, but will say 8, so that I can safely 

 swear to it. In 1890 I got 388 skins, aud lost by sinking 12 seals. 

 Last year I got 331 skins, and lost 10 by sinking. This year I got 348 

 skins, and lost by sinking 7 seals, I kept count of the number that 

 sank, and know exactly. I consider that no average hunter ought to 

 lose more than I have lost. 



4. I and other hunters make sure that we are close enough to a seal 

 to make us reasonably certain of getting it before we shoot at all. 



5. I use both a shot-gun and a rifle, but seldom a rifle, and then only 

 at travelling seals on a calm day, and a rifle is never used exce])t when 

 the seal is too far away to shoot with a shot-gun. I didn't kill more 

 than twelve with a rifle this year. 



6. I shoot at a sleeping seal when about 15 yards away, and most of 

 the seals we get are sleepers. There is no chance of a seal sinking 

 before it is got if only one is shot, but sometimes when two are together, 

 and both are shot, one may sink while we are after the other. Most of 

 the seals I lost were lost in this way. 



7. I have every year seen seals in schools both south of Cape Flat- 

 tery and north along the coast to the Fairweather Grounds, but seals 

 are very hard to get then; they seem to be on thelook-out, and if one 

 shot is fired all make away. 



8. I am sure that I don't shoot at one out of fifty seals that I see — 

 probably not one out of a hundred. 



9. Male and female seals travel together, and, as a rule, the yearlings 

 are with them, but I have seen schools of young seals together. 



10. The older seals are harder to get than the young ones, and the 

 females are much harder to get than the males. 



11. I have found that their principal food is squid. 



12. Last year and this year I hunted on the Asiatic side of Behring 

 Sea in the summer. On the way across last year through the sea we saw 

 seals whenever it was fine, and got some, and this year we saw some 

 seals south of the Aleutian Islands as we went across. 



13. I found as many seals last year as the year before, and this year 

 I saw more than ever before. 



14. I have seen seals cohabiting in the water, and have been as long 

 as five minutes getting up to them when they were doing this; even 

 though they would see the boat they would pay no attention, and I 

 have killed both the male and female at such times; the cow was all 

 under water but her nose, and the bull was a good-sized one. I had no 

 doubt whatever about what they were doing. The bull made a great 

 deal of noise. 



15. I have always taken along the coast more males than females, 

 and in Behring Sea the sexes were about equal. On the Asiatic side 

 this year they were about equally divided too. 



