750. APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Declaration of Walter Watt. 



Dominion of Canada, Province of British Columbia, to wit: 



I, Walter Watt, of the village of Alberiii, in the district of aSTanaimo, 

 on Vancouver Island, in the Province of British Columbia, do solemnly 

 declare that: 



1. 1 am 28 years of age, and Lave lived in the village of Alberni all 

 my life. 



2. I have hunted seals on the coast of Vancouver Island from the 

 mouth of the Barclay Sound to as far as iSTootka Sound, and also inside 

 Barclay Sound from Cape Beale up to Rainy Bay, and have hunted 

 from the shore, and also from schooner. Have hunted from shore from 

 all the way from 1 to 15 miles out. Seals follow the herring in, and 

 are also driven in by rough weather. Have hunted from a schooner as 

 far as 50 or 60 miles out. 



3. I have used both spear and gun ; if I get close enough I use a 

 spear; if not I shoot them. With a sjiear I lose none that I fasten to, 

 and if I miss them they are not injured. I am only a middling shot 

 with a gun, and would lose one or two in ten, and a good gun hunter 

 might not lose that many. Seals sink quickly' when injured, but if 

 badly hurt come to the surface again, and can be shot again. 



Cows with pup will not sink quickly. The natives prefer the spear, 

 and will always take the sleepers that way. They nearly always take 

 a gun with them as well as a spear, but they think the gun frightens 

 them and makes them wild like hunted ducks, and keeps them from 

 coming in close to shore. 



4. Seals are more plentiful some years than others, just as with any 

 kind of fish. I believe that the seals are just as plentiful as years ago, 

 but do not come in so close to shore since they have been hunted with 

 the gun. The natives object to the white hunter coming in and hunt- 

 ing them when they are close to shore. I have lived with the natives 

 of the Sound all my life; am a half-breed, and married to the daughter 

 of the Chief of the Tseshat tribe, and I know what they (the natives) 

 say and think about it. There were not so many seals taken in the 

 Sound and on the coast this year (1892) as in 1891, and I noticed that 

 the herring was not so plentiful. I have noticed seals come in close 

 to shore at night and go away out to sea at daylight. 



5. Commence hunting seals in the Sound and on the coast about 

 New Year, and continue for about six weeks or two months, and then 

 go out in schooners, but odd seals remain oft' the coast for about six 

 mouths before going north. 



6. About ten years ago the natives got more than they do now. 

 Since the white hunters came shooting them about six years ago they 

 do not get so many, but some years they are more lucky than others. 



7. Around the coast we get about half females, or perhaps a little 



more; in a take of 10, 6 would likely be females; of those 6 

 145 about 3 would be cows with pups in them, and the rest barren 



cows and pups. There are very few old bulls got on the coast; 

 the males are mostly young bulls of 1 and 2 years old; get quite a few 

 barren cows. 



8. The average catch for a canoe with two men along this coast from 

 shore is about fifty for the season, but we can only hunt about two days 

 a- week, as the weather is generally very rough ; sometimes we might 

 get more, and often less. 



9. A good number of grey pups are got; these are always males. 

 Not so many were got this year as last. 



