APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 727 



For the last two seasons I have been hunting on the Japan coast. 

 In 1891 we got 1,687 seals, and in 1892 (this year)" 1,8G8. These years 

 I was in the " 0. H. White" aiul " Bowhead," Last year my personal 

 catch was 453, and this year 208, when a "killer" struck the boat, 

 smashed it, drowned one of my men, lost our guns, and I luckily got 

 safe myself. 



I always use shot-gun and rifle, and some days when I go out never 

 lose a seal, and perhaps, if very rougli and unlucky, might lose one out 

 of five, or on an average all round of from 5 to 10 per cent,, but 10 per 

 cent, would be the outside figure for last year, and this I have lost very 

 few. A seal shot and worried by several shots, and finally killed, will 

 not sink for some time, as its lungs become inflated by its exertions. 



Seals are for the most part shot with shot-gun at from 10 to 30 yards. 



Seals for the most part travel in schools, and the sexes are mixed, 

 and they are so as regards age. Seals are hard to get in schools, as 

 they are very watchful, at least one or two are always on the watch. 



In my experience I never heard of any leader to a school, and I don't 

 think any one could pick out a leader, and I always kill the first I 

 come to. 



A pregnant seal is harder to kill than another, and when killed is 

 more bouyant. 



I think along this coast I get more females than males. In Behring 

 Sea they run half and half, and on the Japanese coast it is the same as 

 on our coast, and on the Eussian coast they average about the same as 

 Behring Sea. 



On the Japanese and this coast the females we get are mostly with 

 X)up, and on the Asiatic coast and in Behring Sea the seals we get are 

 in milk. We get plenty of barren cows, but more on the Japanese 

 coast than elsewhere. 



On the Eussian side we do not get cows in milk farther than from 50 

 to 60 miles from the Commander Islands. On this side I have got them 

 as far as 200 miles from the Pribyloff Islands. 



I don't think there is any difference in the quality of the skins caught 

 in any of those waters I have spoken of, but there is a slight diflerence 

 in the colour of the skins, those on the being darker than those 



on the other. 



The only vessel I heard of getting seals in the Behring Sea this year 

 was the "Allie I. Alger," but was told that she left when she heard it 

 was prohibited, after having got only a few seals. 



Male seals, like other mammals, have teats. 



I do not know of any other rookeries than those I have spoken of. 



In 1883 I was seized when raiding Eobben Island. I was on the 

 schooner "Helena," Captain Golder, master, and our outfit was confis- 

 cated. We raided that island five years. I have also taken part in 

 raiding other islands, but I do not care to give any statement about 

 them without the permission of the owners of the vessels. 



I think that seals should be given some protection, but I think they 

 should be protected on the rookeries as well as on the Sea. 



In crossing from the American to the Russian side I have noticed 

 seals more or less every day during the passage; this would be about 

 the month of August, and incoming from the Eussian to the American 

 side south of the Aleutian Islands about the month of September have 

 observed the same thing. 



