706 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Deposition of Hiram B. Jones. 



State of WASHiNaTON, King County, City of Seattle. 



Hiram B. Jones, being duly sworn, deposes as follows : 



That I have been engaged in the sealing business five years — three 

 years as master. I have been master of the schooner " Challenge " in 

 1887, the " Edward E. Webster" in 1888, and last year I was master of 

 the " Allie I. Alger." By last year I mean this past season. 



The " Allie I. Alger " is a Seattle schooner, owned by Mr. Nixon. I 

 hunt a good deal myself. I never kept any exact account of the seals 

 I killed and those that sank after being shot, but the number would not 

 be more than 3 out of 100. 



I generally shoot at seals at from 15 to 35 yards from them. 



Seals travel in schools very frequently. I have seen them this way 

 very often south of Cape Flattery, as well as north on the Fair weather 

 Grounds. Seals are more difficult to get when they are in schools than 

 when they are scattered about singly. We don't like to get too big a 

 band of them together, and when several are together some are sure 

 to be awake. 



Some places we get nearly all males and some i)laces nearly all females, 

 but generally the two sexes are mixed, and with them are the yearlings, 

 that is, the yearlings travel with the older seals. 



This year I noticed a good many barren females ; my hunters often 

 called my attention to this this year, and Ave would examine the seal 

 and find that it was a cow, but that there was no young one in her. I 

 never noticed this before to such an extent as this year. 



I have not been sealing on the American coast since 1800, but that 

 year saw as many seals as during any previous season. 



I have examined seals and know that male seals have teats as well as 

 females, and from the skin alone the sex of the animals could not be 

 determined except in the case of large bull seals. 



Both on this coast and in Behring Sea the vessels I have been on got 

 more females than males, I think, but I never paid much attention to 

 this. 



I hunted with an Indian crew last year in Behring Sea. They use 

 both guns and spears. I do not think that Indian hunters are so good 

 as white men. Formerly the Indians used spears alone, but they have 

 since learned that guns are better, and are using them more and more. 



I have seen seals having connection with one another in the water in 

 Behring Sea, and have killed both the male and the female at such a 

 time. I have heard hunters say the same thing. It is very easy to 

 get seals at such a time, as they don't seem to mind the boat then. If 

 the female is shot first the male will hang about and is easily got. 



I have noticed that X)regnant females are very wild, a'nd much more 

 on the alert than male seals, and the later in the season it is the wilder 

 they are. 



In all the time I have been sealing I never saw but one dead seal 

 floating on the water, and it was a bull seal that had apparently died 

 of old age, as we examined it, and found no sign of its having been 



shot. 

 117 This season last I went sealing on the Asiatic side. The 13th 



February I left this coast for Japan, and fell in with the first seals 

 when about 500 miles from the Japan coast. I found the seals abun- 

 dant on the Japan coast, and followed them north as far as the north 

 end of Yezo Island. I stopped sealing then about the 20th June, and 

 went to Hakodate to shiiJ my skins, and then north towards the Copper 



