698 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



They never fired at long range — 20 or 30 feet. Never saw a school 

 of seals. They don't go in schools. There was not one grey pup 

 among all the seals we got. They were chiefly females, but nearly all 

 were dry as if they had had their pups, but were through suckling 

 them. A few were in milk. On the stomachs of seals we found a fish 

 like a mackerel, and sometimes squid. 



About the 1st September seals were plentiful outside Akutan Pass. 

 We never got seals whose skins were stagey or poorer at one season 

 than another. I don't think seals can ever be exterminated by killing 

 them at sea; they have too many chances of getting away. 



(Signed) Jas. Gaudin. 



Steam-ship "Chieftain," May 23, 1892. 



Declaration of Charles Blomquist. 



I, Charles Blomquist, do solemnly declare: 



That I was for three months last year (1891) steerer in one of the 

 sealing-boats of the schooner "Sea Lion." I was in her up to the 

 date of her being warned by the "Nymphe." My position as steerer 

 gave me a good chance of seeing how many seals were missed by the 

 hunter in the boat in which I was, and how many of those killed sank 

 and were lost. It is easy to tell when a seal is hit and killed, because" 

 they generally throw their flippers up in the air, and bring them down 

 on the water before they sink. If they are missed, or only wounded, 

 they "breach" at once, and dive, coming up far away. The hunter I 

 was with missed a good many. He killed 149 seals, and of these 3 

 sank; one of these was gafted, but sank with the gafl". When a 

 112 seal is shot, it sometimes sinks at once, and sometimes it does 

 not sink at all. One day the hunter shot two sleepers near one 

 another, one on each side of the boat, and both floated. If a seal is 

 shot in the windpipe, it sinks at once. I skinned nearly all the 149 

 seals, and saw the others. There were about fourteen or fifteen females 

 among them. Nearly all of these seals were got around Middleton 

 Island. 



I heard some Indians talking on the schooner "Aurora;" they said 

 that they had been ashore on Middleton Island, and had killed seals 

 there. 



(Signed) Charles Blomquist. 



I certify that the above declaration was read over to and signed by 

 Charles Blomquist in my presence. 



(Signed) W. J. Cullum. 



Steam-ship "Chieftain," May 23, 1892. 



Declaration of Captain S. W. Buclcman. 



I, Captain S. W. Buckman, now a pilot on China and other steamers 

 coming to this port, declare: 



That I was, in 1886, captain of the steamer "Sardonyx," running 

 from Hong Kong to Victoria. In that year we passed through seals 

 for two days and a part of a third about 150 miles south of the Aleutian 

 Islands. We moved at the rate of about 9J miles an hour. We saw 

 the last of them somewhere about the 172nd meridian. 



