APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 777 



also off the coast iu schooners off Vancouver Island and all along up 

 north into the Behring Sea. I always go hunting every year for seals 

 since I connnenced about eight years ago. I have never seen any seals 

 in Clayoquot Sound, and we do not now hunt from shore, and have not 

 done so for about three years, as the schooners come here very early for 

 us to take us out, and we would rather seal from them. We do not 

 commence sealing here for a month and a-half to two months after they 

 commence at Barclay Sound. 



3. The seals seem to be as plentiful now as they were Avhen I first 

 commenced sealing. I use both the spear and the gun, and I like one 

 as well as the other. If the seal is sleeping very soundly I use the 

 spear, but if I see he is waking up I shoot him and then use my spear 

 as a gaff to prevent him from sinking, and I very seldom lose a seal 

 that I shoot at. If I see two seals sleeping on the water, I never use 

 the gun, as the noise of shooting one wakes the other, but I use the 

 spear and get them both. 1 never shoot if the seal is "breeching," and 

 never shoot nor throw the spear if the seal is more than 5 or 6 fathoms 

 off". I am a very careful hunter, and would not lose 1 in 10 with either 

 spear or gun. 



4. I was hunting for three months this year in the schooner " Sapphire," 

 and went as far as Kadiak Island, but only got 36 seals. The schooner's 

 take was 972 for the season. The w^eather was very rough or we would 

 have done better. There were fourteen canoes on the schooner and two 

 boats, but the boats were not used. I was out in the same schooner last 

 year {lt>l)l), but got very few, as an accident happened to the Indian 

 who was in the canoe with me, who was killed, and I then went as a 

 sailor and did not hunt. I cannot remember how many I got any year 

 but this year, but the first year I went to Behring Sea I got 130. I was 

 in the "Grace" that year. It was in 1886, I think. I have been four 

 times in the Behring Sea. 



5. Along the coast I have got more cows than bulls, but as I have 

 gone north near the Behring Sea, and in the Sea, I have got more bulls 

 than cows. This has always happened. I have never noticed any dif- 

 ference. I have never noticed any in milk till I got to the Behring Sea. 

 Along the coast I have got a good many cows with pup, and have also 

 got old cows not carrying a pup, but have never got an old bull until I 



got as far as Sitka. Six of my catch this year were grey pups ; 

 162 they are nearly always males, but two of mine were females. 



After I got into Behring Sea I have never got a cow with a pup 

 in her, but plenty with milk, and a good many bulls, young and old. 

 When we first go in we get young bulls, and towards the end of the 

 season we get the large ones. 



6. If the seals are sleeping on the water I cannot tell whether they 

 are cows or bulls, but if awake and moving their heads above water I 

 can always tell. 



7. I know of no place along the coast where the seals haul out and 

 have their young, nor have I ever seen them on the rocks or beach. 



8. Years the herring are plentiful on the coast there are a great many 

 seals, and when scarce the seals are scarce. 



9. Two months after Christmas seals are first seen off here — a few at 

 first, but as the w^eather gets warmer they increase. I cannot tell 

 whether the large or small come first; they come mixed. 



10. There are just as many skins now as when I first commenced 

 hunting, but there are so mauy white hunters and schooners hunting 

 them now w ith guns that they are getting much wilder and keep far- 

 ther off shore. 



