722 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



On the ITtli Juue, 1890, I was seized while at anchor in Ounalaska 

 Bay, and my skins — 77 in number, none of whicli were caught in Beh- 

 riug Sea — confiscated. My schooner's catch in 1891 along the coast 

 was 305, and in 1892 (this year) it was 1,190. 



Being- master of the vessel, I do not hunt as a rule, but this year I 

 personally killed 80 seals just around the vessel, and kept account of 

 those shot which I did not get, and they only numbered three, and had 

 I been a little more careful I would not perhaps have lost those. From 

 my ex])erience I Avould place the outside loss for a good hunter with 

 gun and rifle at 5 per cent. The range for a gun is from 10 to 30 yards, 

 and most of the seal are got between those ranges. With a rifle the 

 range would be anywhere up to 100 yards at which we would shoot. 



The reason so much ammunition is used on our vessels is that we 

 place no restrictions on our hunters as to how much they may use in 

 practice or shooting birds or game. We let them do this because we 

 know that the more practice they get the more expert hunters they 

 will become, and much more amnnmition is used in the way referred to 

 than in actually hunting seals. 



A seal that has been killed after a struggle, when it has been neces- 

 sary to shoot them several times, will not readily sink, and I have 

 known them to float for an hour after death, for their lungs fill with air. 



Seals travel in schools mixed as to age and sex, and in schools they 

 are more difficult to approach, as some always appear to be on the look- 

 out than when travelling as stragglers. Never heard of there being a 

 leader in a school of seals. A pregnant seal is more w^ary than any 

 other. 



I think as a rule more cows are got than bulls; this is the case on the 

 Japanese coast as well as this; the catches in this respect vary every 

 year. Very few of the old bulls are taken; about two thirds of the 

 cows got on each coast are pregnant. 



I find that seals are just as plentiful this year as in any j^ear in my 

 experience, and I do not think they are decreasing, but are becoming 

 wilder from being hunted so much, and harder to get near. 



I left for the Japanese coast this year on the 29th February, and 

 reached Victoria on my return on the 20th July, and in crossing from 

 Japan — taking the " great circle" course by which I would have passed 

 to the southward of the Aleutian Islands about 200 miles — I saw seals 

 every day, some days one or two, but some each day right along. 



In returning from the Alaskan coast two years ago in August, I 

 noticed more or less seals- daily in the North Pacific as far as 500 miles 

 from land. 



.1 never picked up any floating seals or " stinkers." 



Nothing has been paid or promised me for making this statement, 

 but I do it voluntarily, and have read it over, and it is correct and true. 



(Signed) C. E. Mockler. 



Subscribed and sworn before me, this 29th day of November, 1892. 

 [seal,.] (Signed) Lincoln Sonntag, JSIotary Fuhlic. 



Deposition of Lee J. Thiers. 



State of California, City and County of San Francisco. 



Lee J. Thiers, of San Francisco, being duly sworn, deposes and 

 swears : 



Am a resident of San Francisco, and am a seal-hunter. 



