APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 687 



other side there were no pups. A few cows had a little milk, but most 

 of them were dry. 



4. That the "Breuda" this year went over to the Asiatic side, alongr 

 the Aleutian Islands, about 50 miles south. I saw scattering seals all 

 the way along, especially about the 175th to 180th i:)arallel. These seals 

 were travelling north towards Behring Sea. 



5. That the seals on the Asiatic side are more copper-coloured on the 

 breast and bellies than on this side, but there is no other difference 

 that I ever noticed. I have seen exactly the same thing in seals on this 

 coast, but not so many of them. 



r>. That the most seals I ever saw in any one place at one time was 

 off the mouth of the Columbia River in 18S0. Taking the whole coast, 

 seals were ju«t as numerous this year as in any year I was out. On 

 the ui)per coast I have seen most seals oft" Middletou Island and Port- 

 lock Bank in May and June. Seals ou the coast are a little harder to 

 get than they were when I first went out. 



7. That I use a shot-gun for killing seals, and shoot sleepers at from 

 10 to 20 yards, and "travellers" at from 25 to 40 yards. Very few 

 wounded seals that escape the hunters die. I have got a few seals that 

 had been wounded, some of them pretty badly, bat the wounds were 

 perfectly healed uj). These seals must have been wounded some years 

 before. 



A.nd I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the 

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

 Oaths." 



(Signed) Charles Francis. 



105 Subscribed and declared by the said Charles Francis before me, 



a Notary L^ublic duly commissioned, and residing and practising 



at the city of Victoria, in the Province of British Columbia, this 2Gth 



day of November, A. D. 1892, 

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



A Hfotary Fublic in and for the Province of British Columbia, 



Declaration of Michael Keefe. 



Dominion of Canada, 



Province of British Columbia, City of Victoria. 



I, Michael Keefe, of the city of Victoria, in the Province of British 

 Columbia, Canada, master mariner, do solemnly declare: 



1. That I have been engaged in fur-seal hunting in the North Pacific 

 Ocean for the past six years — two years as mate, and four as master. 

 Three of the six years I was in the Behring Sea sealing. 



2. In 1886 I was mate of the "Dolphin," in 1887 mate of the "Anna 

 Beck," in 1889 I was master of the "Beatrice," in 1890 and 1891 master 

 of the same schooner, and in 1892 master of the "Kosie Olsen." 



3. That in 1892 my schooner got 180 skins on the coast. These were 

 nearly all young bulls — very few cows, and none with pup. I am 

 certain of this, as it was remarked by the hunters and crew at the 

 time as something unusual. 



4. In 1882, on the "Beatrice," on the coast, I got 913 skins from 

 between Cape Flattery and Kadiak Island. The next year 1 got 200 on 

 the coast, and the third year in the "Beatrice" about 200 on the coast. 

 In each of these years by far the larger licrccntage of the catches were 



