720 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Under 100 of the schooner's catch was got along the Eussian coast. In 

 1802, in the "Eninia and Louisa," along the coast we got a total catch 

 of 1,012, of which I got 109. 



3. I use gun and rifle, but principally the shot-gun, and most of the 

 seals are got between 10 and 40 yards with tbe shot-gun. 



4. The year I was in tbe ''Dennis" (1891) I lost 3 seals by sinking 

 after being shot, and I Avould place the outside figure of loss bj the 

 sinking of killed and mortally wounded seals with the gun at 8 cut of 

 100, and one of the reasons for the impression that has got abroad of 

 the great loss of seals from gun hunting is from the fact that poor 

 hunters are very apt to account for their poor success by saying that 

 thCir loss by sinking was much greater than was actually the case. 



5. We find seals travelling in schools very often are more difficult to 

 get than when travelling alone or in pairs. There is always a look- 

 out one on guard. I never heard of a leader to a school, and 



125 I don't believe the man ever lived who could pick out a leader 

 in a school. In a school I have killed seals of all ages and 

 sexes ; they are mixed. 



6. Going up the coast I find that we get more females than males, 

 and in Behring Sea I think it is about the same. I cannot say what 

 proportion of the females I have taken up the coast carry i)ups. In 

 Behring Sea, out of 40 females I got one day, about 10 were in milk; 

 the rest I am unable to say whether they Avere barren or had lost their 

 pups; certainly they were not carrying young or were in milk. We 

 get very few old bulls in our catches. 



7. The seals seem to be as thick now as ever they have been, but seem 

 wilder and harder to get at; seals are more plentiful different years in 

 different places. This year we had more than an average catch, but 

 didn't happen to be in the right places, as some other vessels that were 

 near us got extra large catches. I got cows in milk from 60 to 70 miles 

 oft" Bogosloft' Island, and between it and the Pribyloff Islands. 



8. In crossing from the American to the Asiatic coast in July we saw 

 seals more or less every day, and no one could tell to which islands 

 these seals belong, as when aroused they mostly travelled to windward. 



9. Skins on this coast look to me to be better than those on the 

 Asiatic, as the hair looks to be longer. 



10. I think the Government should control the islands, and any close 

 season made should apply to the islands. 



11. I have not been ])aid anything, nor has anything been promised 

 me, in consideration of my having made the foregoing statement, which 

 I have read over and find correct. 



12. We are target shooting all the time we are out, and a large quan- 

 tity of ammunition is used in this way. I used 130 shots in one day 

 to call the attention of a schooner. 



(Signed) W. O. Sn after. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 28th day of November, A. d. 

 1892. 

 [seal.] (Signed)^ Lincoln Sonntag. 



Deposition of John Figuera. 



State of California, City and County of San Francisco. 



John Figuera, of San Francisco, being duly sworn, deposes and says: 

 1. I am a seal-hunter, and have been engaged as such and as steerer 

 for the past four seasons. 



