APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 785 



167 III.— TESTIMONY ON VARIOUS POINTS RELATING TO SEALS 



AND SEALING, 



Declaration of Thorwal Mathason, 



Dominion of Canada, 



Frovmce of British Columbia., City of Victoria, 



I, Thorwal Mathason, of the city of Victoria and Province of British 

 Cohinibia, do solemnly and sincerely declare: 



1. That some time last April a man whom I did not know met me on 

 the street and asked if I had been sealing. I told him that I had. He 

 invited me into the Occidental Hotel, where we had a drink together. 

 He then asked me if I wanted to make a conple of dollars, and as I was 

 hard up I said " Yes." He took me to the Driard Hotel. There was a 

 gentleman there who asked me questions. I was asked what percentage 

 of females had been killed the year before when 1 was out, and 1 told 

 him about three out of five were females. He did not ask me how many 

 seals were lost by sinking, but if he had I would have told him very 

 few were lost. Last year, out of 243 seals taken by the boat I was in, 

 5 were lost by sinking, and this year 142 were taken, and 3 Avere lost 

 by sinking. This is about the usual percentage lost. I was on the 

 "Oscar and Hattie" last year, 1891. The first shot will kill a sleeping 

 seal if the hunter is any good. 



2. This year I was again out on the " Oscar and Hattie" in the spring, 

 but we got few seals, as our captain did not understand about when 

 the boats ought to be lowered, or how seals ought to be hunted. I went 

 out late in the season on the "Dora Sieward," leavhig Victoria, the 1st 

 May, and we made a jjoor catch on the way north, as we went out too 

 late. The other hunters told me that they had seen a very great many 

 seals, and I one day saw over 300 seals when we were off Middleton 

 Island; they were travelling to the westward. 



3. I know a good many of the men that went to the Driard Hotel 

 last spring to give their evidence, and several of them were men such 

 as are always found around docks and wharves — longshoremen — who 

 not only had never been sealing, but I do not believe they ever saw a 

 seal. They went only for the money they got. Some of the men got 

 only 50 cents for going, but they were men whose evidence was not 

 worth much. I got 50 cents each for all the men I took to the room at 

 the Driard Hotel, and I took a good many there. I did not bother 

 myself as to whether they had been seal-hunting or not, but left that 

 to the man in the room at the Driard Hotel. 



4. I am commonly called " Sailor Jack " in Victoria. 



5. I have read over the statements written down in this declaration, 

 and I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same 

 to be true, and by virtue of " The Act respecting Extra-Judicial Oaths." 



(Signed) Tiiorwal Mathason. 



Declared before me at the city of Victoria, this 14th day of October, 

 1892. 



(Signed) A. L. Bblyea, 



A Notary Public in and for the Province of British Columbia, 



B s, PT Vlll 50 



