810 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



there; the tide and canoes wash the blood away then. I do not think 

 the United States Government has the right to allow a Company to 

 kill all the seals, and I and my companions, since we have been pre- 

 vented from taking seals in Behring Sea, thought it was not wrong to 

 take them ashore. Among the seals we got were three or four with 

 shot in them; there was nothing the matter with them. 



The above statements are all true, and I have read them over care- 

 fully. No consideration was given me for having made them. 



(Signed) John Kraft. 



Sworn to before me at Victoria, this 5th day of October, 1892. 



[seal.] (Signed) Thomas Shotbolt, J. P. 



Deposition of 8. L. Beckwith. 



State of California, City and County of San Francisco, s.s. 



S. L. Beckwith, of San Francisco, being duly sworn, deposes and says: 



1. I live in San Francisco, and came here in 1848, and have lived on 

 the coast ever since. Am aged 72 years, and follow boat-building. 

 Was a hunter for about eight years, both for sea-otter and fur-seal. 



2. I was mate on the vessel "Alexander," belonging to Hermann 

 Liebes, of which Ca])taiu Carlson was master. In 1880, or thereabouts, 

 I went up in her to Behring Sea, and was one of those who went ashore 

 from her on Otter Island — one of the Pribyloff group — for the purpose 

 of making a raid, and got over 300 skins. I do not remember how many 

 exactly, but all we could find — all there were there. At that time the 

 lease of the islands was held by the Alaska Commercial Company of 

 San Francisco. In the same year, and on the same voyage, I went 

 ashore and raided Copper Island, and got about 100 seals, and we would 

 have got a great many more, for we had about 1,200 killed, when we 

 were fired ui)on. A Japanese vessel was there the day before raiding, 

 and several of the raiders w ere shot. The Alaska Commercial Company 

 were the lessees of the island at that time. 



3. I have hunted otter on the Japanese coast, but did not do any 

 seal-hunting there. I remember that there was a seal rookery on Ketoy 

 Island, one of the Kurile group — that was about 1873 or 1874. I have 

 been there since, and they are all destroyed. 



4. I never heard of a sealing- vessel named the " Maggie Eoss," and I 

 do not believe there ever was one, nor did I ever hear of the " Charles 

 D. Wilson." 



5. I have not been paid anything, nor has anything been promised 

 me, in consideration of making the foregoing statement, which I have 

 read over and found correct. 



(Signed) S. L. Beckwith. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 26th day of ^STovember, 1892. 

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



184 Declaration of John Coles. 



I, John Coles, of the city of Victoria, make oath and say: 

 1. That I sailed from this place on the sealing schooner '^Mascotte* 

 on the 25th June last on a voyage to Behring Sea. On the 24th Octo- 



