712 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



9. I have seen seals cohabiting in the wiater, and at snch times have 

 been able to kill both by killing the cow first. 



10. In Behring Sea I place the limit of finding suckling cows at from 

 75 to 80 miles from the Pribyi oft' Islands. 



11. We do not restrict our hunters in the way of ammunition; they 

 can use as much as they like for practice and for food in shooting ducks 

 and geese, and fully more ammunition is used in this way than in kill- 

 ing seals. 



The male seals have teats, and I think it is impossible to tell a male 

 skin from a female when it has been removed from the carcase. 



12. At the request of the Captain of the United States revenue-cutter 

 "Corwin," I went on board that vessel and made a statement to Mr. 

 Lavender, an official from Washington, regarding sealing. I cannot 

 remember exactly what was asked me, or what I said, but I do remem- 

 ber being asked as to my opinion as to the best manner of protecting 

 the seal, and whether it would be best to have a close or open season, 

 or to close the Eehring Sea entirely. I told him I would close the 

 Behring Sea, meaning, of course, that there should be no pelagic seal- 

 ing or killing on the islands. What I said was written down and read 

 to me, and I signed it, but I don't think I was sworn. 



13. Seals that have been wounded and been re- shot after "breech- 

 ing" will not sink nearly so quickly as one that has been killed by the 

 first shot, and I have frequently left such a seal on the water for ten 

 or fifteen minutes while I have gone in pursuit of another. The reason 

 for their floating so much longer is that in struggling they inflate their 

 lungs to such an extent they cannot sink. A poor hunter, of course, 

 does not get as many seals as a good hunter, but every one considers 

 himself a good hunter, and after when he has missed a seal, after firing- 

 several shots, comes back with a story that the seal has sunk. And 

 this is one of the reasons for the exaggeration in regard to the loss of 

 seals by shooting. 



14. I have not been paid anything, nor has anything been promised 

 me, in consideration of making this statement, which I have read over 

 and find correct. 



(Signed) Geo. Scott, Captain. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 25th day of November, 1892. 

 [seal.] (Signed) Lincoln Sonntag, Notary Fublic. 



Deposition of George Wester, 



State op California, City and County of San Francisco, s.s. 



George Wester, of San Francisco, having been duly sworn, deposes 

 and swears : 



1. 1 reside in San Francisco, and am and have been a sealer since 

 1880, and have been the captain of the sealing-schooner " Emma and 

 Louisa" during the season of 1892, of this port. I have hunted seals 

 from San Francisco north to the Behring Sea, and also ofi" the coast of 

 Kamtchatka and Kormandorski Islands. 



2. We leave San Francisco about the latter part of January or Isl 

 February, and return about the end of September or beginning of 

 October. 



3. My catches, or the catches of the schooners in which I was a hunter, 

 are as follows : 



