APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OP GREAT BRITAIN. 691 



And I make this solemn declaration coascientiously believing the 

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

 Oaths." 



(Signed) George Wells, his x mark. 



Witness : 

 (Signed) Robt. E. McKeil. 



Subscribed and declared by the said George Wells, the same having 

 been first read over and explained to him, and he fully understood the 

 same, before me, a Notary Public duly commissioned, and residing and 

 practising at the city of Victoria, in the Province of British Columbia, 

 this 26th day of November, 1892. 



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



A Notary Puhlic in and for the Province of British Columhia. 



Declaration of William F. Roland, 



Dominion op Canada, 



Province of British Columhia, City of Victoria. 



I, William F. Roland, of the city of Victoria, in the Province of 

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



1. That I have been three years hunting fur-seals on the North 

 Pacific coasts, two of which I was also in Behring Sea. In 1890, my 

 first year, I was on the " Ocean Belle," and in 1891 and 1892 on the 

 " Carlotta G. Cox." 



2. That in 1890 I got 131 seals on the coast. I did not keep an 

 accurate account of what I lost by sinking, but it was not more than 

 10 or 12. In Behring Sea that year I got 05 seals, and lost 2 or 3. In 

 1891 I got 111 seals on the coast, and 293 in Behring Sea in one month. 

 We went into the Sea on the 8th July, and were warned out on the 

 8th August. I lost 4 seals on the coast and 7 in Behring Sea by sinking 

 last year. 



3. That about one-thiid of my catch on the coast each year was 

 females, but this year, 1892, I got less cows than in either of the two 

 previous years. My catch was mostly young bulls this year. 



That in Behring Sea my catch was about half females; none in pup; 

 more than half of them in milk in varying quantities from a good 

 supply to a few drops in cows about dried up. It is only in the early 

 part of the season in Behring Sea we get cows in milk, and before the 

 end of the season they are about all dried up. 



4. That this year, 1.^92, 1 got 369 seals on the coast, and lost by sink- 

 ing 11. I kept accurate account of this. On the Asiatic side I got 

 136 seals, and lost 8 by sinking. Most of the seals I lost were shot at 

 long range with a rifie. I wounded a few seals that escaped, but I 

 always got seals that were badly wounded. There was little danger 

 of those that escaped dying from their wounds. 



5. That I saw a great many more seals this year than ever before all 

 along the coast, but especially at Fairweather grounds and off Cape 

 Cook, Vancouver Island. I also saw a great body of seals in February 

 last off Cape Flattery. The weather was too rough to lower the boats, 

 and we got none of them. They were in big bunches travelling 

 northward. 



(i. That every year, on the return from Behring Sea or the Copper 

 Island grounds, 1 have seen scattering seals in the North Pacific Ocean 

 on our course about 400 or uOO miles from Kadiak Island along the 50th 



