738 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



as a hunter; in 1893 (last year) I was iu the -'Viva" from Victoria; in 

 1888, we hunted on the coast into Behring Sea. We got on the coast in 

 the "Lottie Fairfield" in 1887, about 500, and I left her- at Victoria; 

 in 1888, on the "Favourite," we went directly, almost, through the 

 Omaka Pass into Behriug Sea, and didn't get more than 50 seals on 

 the coast; we left Victoria about the 1st June. In 1891 we left Victoria 

 on or about the 20th February, and got all our seals on the coast, as we 

 were warned off Sand Point not to go into the Behring Sea; we got 619 

 on the coast. Last year we left Victoria on the 15th February, and got 

 1,848 seals. 



In the year 1891, as a hunter, on the coast, I got personally 95 seals, 

 and in 1892 on the same coast, American, I got 260 seals. 



I do not think the seals are less numerons this year than when I first 

 went sealing, as I have seen more seals this year than ever before. They 

 are getting better educated to look out for danger and harder to get, 

 but there are just as many of them. 



I shot 260 seals last year, and from sinking lost 6, 4 of those I lost 

 through carelessness of the steerer and myself. I lemember this dis- 

 tinctly, as it is a serious matter to us. An old hunter will usually get 

 the seal he shoots at, particularly if he only wounds him. A good 

 hunter ought not to lose, from sinking, 5 out of the 100. I know that 

 hunters often say that seals have sunk when, in fact, they have missed 

 them. 



. I hunt almost entirely with a shot-gun, and this year I didn't have a 

 rifle in the boat. We kill seals from 10 to 40 yards, and the average is 

 about 15 yards. 



We are not restricted in our shooting, we load our own cartridges, 

 and can use as much powderand shot as we please in shooting for 

 practice and at game, and I know we use more in that way than at 

 seals. 



Seals travel in bunches or schools, and are divided up as to males and 

 females and old and young, and they are very much harder to get than 

 when singly, or in ones or twos, as there is always some on watch, I 

 never heard of a leader, and there is no such in a school of seals. 



On the coast going north, as we reached the Columbia River, Ave 

 found mostly young bulls, and as we got toward Cape Cook we struck 

 more cows. Our catch was half cows — half on the coast, as regards 

 male and female. 



I found that getting to the north of Sitka the greater number of the 

 cows were in puj), but I found a good many cows that had neither j)up 

 nor milk in them. 



I remember that in Behring Sea I was never nearer than 40 miles to 

 the islands, and I got seals from there to 150 miles oft', in milk. 



I never saw seals cohabiting in the water. 



I believe that there ought to be a close season for sealing, but that, 

 should it apply to the open sea, the islands ought most certainly to be 

 also included, and that no sealing should be done within 20 miles of the 

 shore. 



I have not heard of anyone sealing in the Behring Sea this year that 

 was not warned away or seized. 



I was a sailor since I was 14 years old, and from this port for four 

 years before I went sealing, and I never heard of a sealing-schooner 

 named the "Maggie Ross," and would certainly have heard of her if she 

 had been in the fleet. 



1 have not been paid nor promised anything in consideration of mak- 

 ing the foregoing statement; which I have read over and found correct, 



(Signed) p, Carlson. 



