APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 721 



2. I reside in San Francisco, and am an American citizen. 



3. I first went ont in the "Sylvia Handy" in 1880, and also in the 

 same vessel in 1887, and in 1891 in the "Sophia Sutherland," and in 

 1892 in the British steam-vessel "Thistle" from this port. 



4. For the past two seasons our catch was small, for we were late in 

 starting, and were behind the run of seals. Tn the "Sutherland" we 

 got only a trifle over 300, and in the "Thistle" 445, of which I got 40 

 and 55. 



5. I always use a shot-gun or rifle, but nearly always the former, and 

 out of the 40 killed in 1891 I kept account, and lost 3, and out of the 55 

 I lost 2 by sinking, and about 6 or 7 which I think I hit and got away 

 altogether. In my judgment I would place the loss of seals from sink- 

 ing after being killed or wounded so as to cause death at from 5 to 10 

 per cent, for an average hunter; of course, a very poor hun.ter might 

 lose a good deal more, but if he did he would find it hard work to get 

 a job another season. Many poor hunters account for their poor work 

 by saying their seals have sunk, and this has a good deal to do with 

 the talk against killing seals by shooting. We can always use as much 

 ammunition as we please for practice, and a great deal is used in this 

 way and for shooting birds and game for food. 



6. I was iu Behring Sea in 1887 and 1891, and was seized in the former 

 year and warned out on the 5th July, 1891, when just inside. 



7. On the coast my catch was pretty well divided as to males and 

 females, and many of them are in pup; until we get well up the coast 

 we cannot tell whether they are in puj) or not. 



8. Seals travel in schools, and sometimes are seen singly and in cou- 

 ples; when in schools they are harder to get near than when alone. 



9. I find that seals are very much wilder than they used to be. 



10. I have had a good many barren cows amongst those I have shot. 



11. I never got any cows in Behring Sea; all I got were bulls. 



12. I never knew or heard of any vessels having taken seals in Beh- 

 ring Sea this year that had not been warned or seized, and in talking 

 with sealers I should likely have heard of it if there had been any. 



13. Never heard of such a thing as a leader iu a school of seals, and 

 never heard any sealer say he had known of it. 



14. I think that if any protection is given to seal life it should apply 

 to the breeding islands equally with the ocean. 



15. I have not been paid nor i^romised anything in consideration of 

 making the foregoing statement, which I have read and found correct. 



(Signed) John Figuera. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 28th day of November, 1892. 



[SEAL.] (Signed) Lincoln Sonntag, Notary FtiMic, 



126 Deposition of Captain C. E. Modeler. 



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



Car)tain C. E. Mockler, of San Francisco, being duly sworn, deposes 

 and swears: 



I reside in San Francisco, and am master of the "Mattie Dyer," and 

 have been so for the past three years. I have been hunting seal in her 

 for that time along the coast from the Columbia Kiver to Behring Sea, 

 and also on the Japanese coast. 



B S, PT VIII 46 



