696 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



Declaration of G. G, Gerow, 



Mr. G. C. Gerow declares as follows: 



I have been sealing five seasons. I first went out on the " Triumpli" 

 twelve years ago; she was afterwards lost. Four years ago I went out 

 on the new '^ Triumph," the next year on the " Ariel," tbe third year ou 

 the "E. B. Marvin," in which I have a part interest, and last year ou 

 the "Unibrina." I have always been engaged as hunter. 



During the last two years 1 have kept a strict account of the seals 

 shot by me, and would be willing to say under oath that I did not lose 

 one in eighteen. Often when I would get thirty or more seals in one 

 day none would be lost, but at other times I would lose quite a large 

 percentage, but on the whole season not more than one in eighteen 

 would be lost. Of these, I am not sure that they were killed, but about 

 that percentage is struck and lost. 



I have uo way of knowing how many wounded seals get away and 

 die, as there is no way of telUng; but there are not many, for if a seal 

 is not badly wounded it will get away and live. If badly wounded it 

 will be certainly got. It is very seldom that a seal can be shot any- 

 where but in the head or neck; if shot in the head it will die, and if in 

 the neck it may get away if not hit in a vital part. I know that some 

 wounded ones get away, for last summer near Copper Island we took 

 some seals that had been shot before, some a week, and some much 

 longer. If many seals were wounded and died they would be found 

 afterwards, as, unless a seal is killed instantly, it will as a rule float. 

 In five years 1 have found but one dead seal. It had been some time 

 dead, for it was much decomposed. If a seal is killed at once it begins 

 to sink in about half a minute, always going down rump first. A male 

 always sinks more quickly than a female. 



Good hunters lose very few seals, and poor hunters do not lose as 

 many as they say they do. They often excuse themselves for not hav- 

 ing brought in seals by saying that they killed them, but that they 

 sank. The pullers tell quite a different story, however. 



Seals are sometimes found in schools or bunches of from five to 

 twenty. A year ago last March I found them that way oft' the Colum- 

 bia Eiver. When seals are in bunches it is almost impossible to get 

 any of them, as there is sure to be one or more that are lively and on 

 the watch, and who give warning to the others. If I saw one seal in one 

 direction, and a bunch in another, I would go after the single seal. It 

 is all nonsense to say that if a schooner gets into a school a great many- 

 are killed, for they would likely all get away. I never have seen a school 

 or bunch of any particular kind of seal. Late in the season there are a 

 good many young males that do not go to the islands until late, or not 

 at all ; but at other times all kinds are mixed together ; sometimes, how- 

 ever, a day's hunt will co jist of nearly all males, and sometimes nearly 

 all females. 



Of my coast catch about two-thirds are females, and about the same 

 in Behring Sea. In a good season's catch there would be about 100 to 



150 barren females. 

 Ill I have found all along Queen Charlotte Islands females in 



milk who have dropped their pups. The most I ever saw was 

 when on the "Triumph" four years ago ; in June we got seventy or more 

 females in milk that had dropped their young. I and all other sealers 

 have had this experience, and believe that the seals have some place 

 about, or south of, the Queen Charlotte Islands where they give birth 

 to their young. 



