740 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



12. I think the seals ought to be protected, but if any close season is 

 made the islands ought certainly to be closed, as well as the open sea. 



13. I have not been paid or promised anything in consideration of 

 having made the foregoing statement, which I have read over and found 

 correct. 



(Signed) Dan A. Lewis. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 5th day of December, 1892. 

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



Deposition of Peter Hammel, 



State of California, City and County of San Francisco. 



Peter Hammel, being duly sworn, deposes and says: 



1. Am a resident of San Raphael,. California, and an American sub- 

 ject. Am a seal-hunter, and hunted along this and the Japanese coasts. 



2. For the last two years I have been in the "Mattie E. Dyer," and 

 last year, 1891, we got along the coast from here to Kadiak over 400 

 seals, and I got personally 72. This year, on the Japanese coast, our 

 catch was over 1,180, of which I got 92. My catch this year was small, 

 owing to the fact that I was lost from the schooner in a fog, and had to 

 return by steamer. 



3. I used a gun in sealing almost always, but occasionally a rifle, and 

 lose by sinking very few seals, not more than one in every tAventy-five. 



4. Pregnant seals float longer than bulls or barren cows. 



5. Seals are killed with a shot-gun from 10 to 30 yards away. 



6. The seals most always travel in schools, and are then very hard to 

 get. The schools are mixed — old and young, male and female. 



7. I think I get more females than males, perhaps 20 per cent. more. 

 I haven't found a big lot of difference in the numbers. 



8. More than half the cows on this coast were carrying pup, but on 

 the Japan coast not so many carried pups, not half of them any way. 



9. I have killed plenty of barren cows. I cannot say just what pro- 

 portion there would be barren, as I paid very little attention to the 

 matter. 



10. I could not see the difference between the skins taken on the 

 Japanese coast and those taken on the American coast. 



11. In sealing I could use ammunition for shooting at game, and we 

 were never stinted in its use. 



12. Seals eat all sorts of fish, and wherever the herring and bait is 

 there will seals be found. 



13. I have killed very few old bulls. 



14. I have never seen a dead seal or "stinker" floating. 



15. I think that the seals ought to be protected, particularly at the 

 rookeries. 



16. I have read this over and found it correct, and I have not been 

 paid or promised anything in consideration of having made the fore- 

 going statements. 



(Signed) Peter Hammel. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me, this Gth day of December, 1892. 

 [seal.] (Signed) Lincoln Sonntag, Notary Fublic. 



