788 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



3. I know very well William Parker, who was one season a hunter on 

 the schooner " Walter L. Kich." I consider him a fair hunter, but I 

 would not take his word, nor do I think anybody who knows him would. 

 I know he was once arrested for vagrancy. 



4. Among masters and mates he has a poor reputation, and is not the 

 kind of a man they care to take on a voyage. 



And 1 make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the 

 same to be true, and by virtue of '' The Act respecting Extra- Judicial 

 Oarhs." 



(Signed) George McDonald. 



Subscribed and declared by the said George McDonald before me, a 

 Notary Public duly commissioned, and residing and practising at tlie 

 city of Victoria, in the Province of British Columbia, this 25th day of 

 October, 1892. 



[seal.] (Signed) Arthur L. Belyea, 



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



Declaration of Andrew D. Laing. 



Dominion of Canada, 



Province of British Columbia, City of Victoria, 



I, Andrew D. Laing, of the city of Victoria, in the Province of British 

 Columbia, do solemnly declare as follows : ■ 



1. That I traded on the west coast among the Indians from 1871 to 

 1881 for Captain Spring. 1 then left the employ of Spring and built a 

 vessel and hunted fur-seals with Indian crews up to 1887. On the 9th 

 dayof July in that year was taken by the United States cutter "Rush" 

 about 49 miles oft' the nearest land in Behring Sea, was towed into 

 Unalaska, our skins were taken from us, a Quartermaster put on board, 

 and we were ordered to Sitka. The "Push" towed us out into the 

 Pacific, and we went then to Sitl<a and delivered the schooner to the 

 Marshal. In 1888 1 was out on the "Favourite" as mate on a sealing 

 voyage. In 1889 I was on the " VV. P. Sayward," and was in that ves- 

 sel in 1890. I was out in the " W. P. Sayward" in the spring of 1891, 

 and this year was not out at all. 



2. I was examined by Mr. Milne last winter as to my knowledge of 

 seals and their habits, and he took down all that was said to him; and 

 last spring was examined by Major Williams on the same matters. 

 Major Williams did not take down all I said. When what I said did 

 not agree with what he thought, he would either not listen to nie, or 

 would argue with me, and then change the subject. One thing I remem- 

 ber was about the number of seals lost by being killed and then sink- 

 ing. I told Mr. Milne that I had not hunted with white men, but I 

 knew Indians lost very few. I told Major Wilhams this also, but I do 

 not think he took this down. At the time my evidence was given it 

 was taken down in writing, but I was not asked to sign the paper. 

 The next evening the United States Consul, JNIr. Meyers, and Mr. Moss — 

 who was then, I think, Vice-President of the Sealers' Association — 

 came to my house. They asked me to go to the Driard Hotel, and then, 

 what purported to be my evidence, was read over to me. I did not read 

 it myself. Everything that was read was all right and true enough, 

 but some things I had told them were left out. They asked me to sign 

 the paper then, and I did so j it was type- written; no improper means 



