APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 663 



them to one side, and then go back for more when they are killed. . I 

 know a captain who had fonnd a rock in the Japan season which there 

 were seals, but he never could find it again. 



9. I know from the experience I have had that it is a common thing 

 on that side for seals to hanl out on new grounds, and every schooner 

 always made a point of stopping at every barren rock to have a look for 

 seals. I have always thought that seals .hauled out on the Alaskan 

 coast in this way, but never succeeded in finding the place. 



10. Before Alaskan Commercial Company got the Pribyloff Islands 

 there was a rookery on the south side of Unimak Island. A man told 

 me this about fifteen years ago, and said that the passage between there 

 and the mainland must have got blocked with ice in a manner to allow 

 the bears to get across, for they were found there, and have since 

 increased wonderfully. Bears are fonder of seals than any other food. 

 I know that the people of Attn and Atka are not native there; they 

 were taken there for the purpose of hunting seaotter. 



11. At Neah Bay in 1879 I saw a bitch nursing two pups that had 

 been cut from their mother; the bitch did not seem to know the differ- 

 ence between them and puppies. I was there a mouth or six weeks, 

 and they were still alive and doing well when I left them; it has always 

 been a mystery to me whether a mother nursed her own young ones, or 

 any that wanted to nurse. When we were on Eobbeu Eeef I used to 

 see the pups crawling around the females when they came ashore, but 

 I couldn't tell if they nursed from their own mothers. 



12. I more than once made raids on the Pribyloff Islands when I sailed 

 from San Francisco, and know of other vessels having done so. We 

 understood just how to work, and there was no chance of its being 

 known that we had been there. We would go ashore and quietly drive 

 the seals down to the edge of the water, as near the water as possible, 

 so that the tide or waves would wash the blood away. We would have 

 the boats right at the spot, and would take the seals on board as fast 

 as they were killed; we never left anything that could show we had 

 been there, picking up the slightest bit of stick. Two of us — two 

 schooners — lay at anchor 35 miles off St. Paul ; we were there six weeks ; 

 when it got dark we would run in to " North- east Point" — we were 

 anchored on the east side; we chose that place because when there was 

 surf on one side of the point there might not be on the other, while the 

 other rookeries could only be approached from one side. We never 

 stayed ashore each time over two or three hours, as we wanted to get 

 out of sight of the island as soon as possible. The people on the island 

 never knew we went there, and don't know to this day. We anchored 

 there once from the middle of June until after the cutter left in Septem- 

 ber, going in whenever the weather suited. We once ran in too near 

 the village and saw a cutter there, and went away again, but we found 

 the coast clear the next night, and got about 500 skins. We could see 

 the light at the village. We knew very well the natives did not keep 

 a good watch. We got about 2,000 skins that year off the island. 



13. I was at Robben Reef at the time the Alaska Commercial Com- 

 pany sent a vessel there— the "Leon," Captain Blair — to destroy the 

 seals. They had tried their best to protect the island, but we were too 

 much for them. We had the guard in our pay, and when the " Leon," 

 which had been sent there to guard the place, would go aAvay, lights 

 would be put out, and we would come over from Cape Patience where 

 we had men on the look-out constantly, or if we got impatient the fast- 

 est sealer in the fleet would go there and be chased by the " Leon " 

 (a sailing-vessel), and the others would make the raid; we worked 

 together, and the schooners would divide up. 



