950 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN.- 
I trust the information is what is wanted, as I have endeavoured to frame the ques- 
tions so that the answers would show reasons for their intelligent answers on the 
three questions: 
1. The proportion of seals lost as compared with hit. | 
2. The proportion of females to males killed in the different months. 
3. The abstention of Canadians from all raiding, &c. 
I have &ce. 
(Signed) A. BR. MILNr, Collector. 
{Inclosure 4.] 
Depositions taken before A, R. Milne, Collector of Customs, Port of Victoria, B. C. 
Cereno Jones Kelley, master of the Canadian schooner ‘‘C. H. Tupper,” of Shel- 
bourne, Nova Scotia, having been duly sworn: 
1. Mr. Milne.—How many yexrs have you been engaged in sealing, Captain Kel- 
ley?—A. I have been sealing for two years as master of the ‘‘C. H. Tupper.” 
2. Q. Have your voyages been reasonably fortunate, in comparison with those of 
other vessels?—A. About an average. 
3. Q. Have you gone south of Cape Flattery in hunt for seals?—A. Yes, Sir; and 
have followed the seals all along the coasts of British Columbia to Behring’s Sea. 
4, Q. During last year, to your observation, were the seals as plentiful from the 
coast to Shumagin Islands as they were the previous year?—A. I think there was no 
material difference. 
5. Q. Did the seals last year appear to be frightened or more timorous than in 
previons years on account of the number of vessels?—A. I observed no material 
difference. 
6. Q. In shooting seals, what is your experience?—A. My experience is that unless 
a seal is mortally wounded—hit in a vital spot—it is practically uninjured, and 
appears to be as full of vitality as before it was shot. The shot-wounds will rapidly 
close up, if not made in a vital part, and the seal will swim away as though nothing 
had happened. The flow of blood stops very quickly, and the seal moves off at a 
very rapidrate. I picked shot from the bodies of seals, previously wounded in other 
than a vital part, and the animal in every other way appeared to be in a healthy 
coudition. 
7. Q. So you believe that a seal when shot, if not mortally wounded, does not sink 
or seek a place—a rookery, or some place to die?—A. A wounded seal will not alter 
its course in the slightest. It will go along the same as before, its wound healing 
rapidly, very rapidly, too. Itis astonishing how quickly such wounds will heal. 
168 Ionce shot a seal which had been speared by Indians, and the spear had made 
an apparently mortal wound. There was a cut about 24 by 3 inches a little 
above the side behind the flipper. This wound appeared to have been made about 
three days previously, and in that.time it had healed half an inch all round. 
8. Q. Arethere more seals shot sleeping than in motion?—A. I should say that the 
larger proportion of seals are shot whilst sleeping, that is, as far as my own expe- 
rience goes. 
9. Q. What do you consider the vital part of a seal? Where do the hunters aim 
for generally—the head or the heart?—A. It depends largely upon the position of 
the seal. The vital parts are in the head, in the vicinity of the heart, and, if a seal 
is shot so as to bleed internally, the hunters are sure of securing it. ‘The head is the 
usual mark. 
10. Q. What is usually a safe shooting distance?—A. It depends largely upon the 
circumstances of the case. Somewhere between 10 and 30 yards would be about the 
distance. I should say that it is the average with sleeping or travelling seals. The 
sleeping seal is often approached to within even less than 10 yards, but the average 
is from 10 to 20 yards for sleeping seal and from 10 to 30 yards for travellers. 
11. Q. The seal is very sensitive, is it not?—A. Yes; we have to approach them 
from the leeward always. Their sense of smell is very acute. 
12. Q. Do the seals generally travel far when wounded?—A. That will depend 
upon where it is wounded. If it is vitally wounded in the head, it will hardly move 
from its position, for it is likely to die right there, but it will not sink. Thisis from 
my own observation. There is only one way that a seal will sink after being shot, 
that is, when it is shot in such a manner as to be thrown backwards, sinking tail 
first, thus allowing the air to escape out of its mouth. I might say, further, that I 
have never seen a seal sink which was shot while sleeping. 
13. Q. Will you state the proportion of seals lost as compared with those hit in 
sealing ?—A. My own personal experience during the past two years is that my loss 
by seals sinking would not average 3 per cent. During last year (1891) I actually 
