APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 681 



third of the females were breeding cows sliowiiis' milk. After tbe 1st 

 August hardly any cows got showed signs of milk. I believe they had 

 pupped on the islands and the milk had dried up. 



4. This year (1892) I got 879 seals on the coast, between Cape Blanco 

 and Kadiak Island. I got more seals oft" Cross Sound and off Kadiak 

 Island than at any other localities. 



5. That not more than 10 per cent, of my coast catch this year were 

 females. I made a large catch off Kadiak Island — about 400 skins — 

 between the 20th May and the 10th June. These were nearly all males. 

 Off Cross Sound, from about the 25th April to the 10th May, 1 got 

 about 200 seals; these were nearly all males. 



6. That less than one-half of the females I got on the coast this year 

 were with pup. I am positive not fifty females in my coast catch were 

 with pup. I account for my large catch of males simply to the fact 

 that I happened to get amongthe young bulls during good sealing 

 weather. The United States schooner " Henry Dennis " was off Kadiak 

 at the same time, and her captain — one Miner — told me he had theu on 



board 1,800 skins, only 150 of which were females. 



101 7. That about the 23rd June last I left Tonki Bay for the Cop- 



per Island grounds, at which I arrived on the 10th July. Between 



the 172nd Pass and the western islands of the Aleutian group, from 30 



to 60 miles off south shore, I saw scattering seals. I cannot say which 



way they were travelling. 



8. That up to the 28th August I had taken G08 skins over there. On 

 the 28th August the Russian corvette "Vetiez" seized my vessel and 

 ended the voyage. 



9. That I saw fully 1,000 seals on the coast this year for one last year. 

 I was late going out last year, but nowhere — except in Behring Sea last 

 year — have I seen so many seals as this year along the upper coast. 



10. That I had six white hunters this year. Now and then a hunter 

 reported having lost a seal, but the total lost was very small. The loss 

 of a seal is always talked over by the hunters, and I was sure to hear 

 of it. It is a great merit among hunters to show no losses, or very few. 



11. That I have never picked up a dead seal at sea, nor have I heard 

 of any of my hunters either last year or this doing so. 



And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the 

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

 Oaths." 



(Signed) W. O. Hughes. 



Subscribed and declared by the said William Otis Hughes 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 

 November, A. D. 1892. 



[seal.] (Signed) Akthue. L. Belyea, 



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



Declaration of James McRae. 



Dominion of Canada, 



Province of British Columbia, City of Victoria, 



I, James McRae, of the city of Victoria, in the Province of British 

 Columbia, Canada, fur-seal hunter, do solemnly declare: 



1. That I have been seal-hunting on the North Pacific Ocean two 

 seasons : in 1891 on the " Viva," and in 1892 on the " Oscar and Hattie." 



