APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 957 
12. Q. You say you find the bearing cows travelling continually ?—A. If the 
weather is rough, they are travelling, but if fine, they are usually seen sleeping or 
resting. 
13. Q. Is it a fact that the females with young swim low down in the water ?— 
A. Yes; the bulls and barren cows keep their heads well up, looking around. 
14. Q. When you come upon a group of seals, your catch, then, will depend upon 
whether the group is composed of males or females?—A. Yes; very much. 
15. Q. As a matter of experience, Captain Cox, have you come upon more groups 
of males than of females during the last year, say ?—A. I have caught more bulls the 
last season—a great deal more. I had 848 seals coming up the coast before entering 
Behring’s Sea, and of these about 75 per cent. would be males. 
16. Q. Have you any private opinion as to the reason of this preponderance of the 
males last year as compared with previous years?—A. I cannot account for it. In 
fact, I could hardly advance any idea of the cause. I get the most of them from 
Queen Charlotte Island coast northwards. 
17. Q. You think, though, with some of the other sealers, that at about May the 
cows are well in advance, going to Behring’s Sea, to the breeding grounds, conse- 
quently the males would be left behind?—A. That is the only reason I can see for it, 
becanse we get very few females ‘‘ with pup” in May. 
18. Q. What do you consider a sufficient shooting distance, that is sufficiently 
close range, for sleeping seals?—A. A great many are shot inside of 15 yards. I 
think about 15 yards. 
19. Q. As a professional sealer, what is your honest and candid opinion about the 
percentage of seals lost, that is, the number lost after being hit—those that sink ?— 
A. With the Indian hunters it would not amount to one in a hundred. They kill 
with the spear, and I know it would not amount to 1 per cent. I was only one 
season with Indian hunters. Last year] had whites. I do not think the loss would 
be more than 4 or d per cent. with shooting by the white hunters. 
20. Q. The spear of the Indian sealer is barbed, is it not, and fastens in the 
animal?—A. Yes, it has two barbs, and a line attached, so that they are sure of their 
seal unless their line breaks, or the spear is not stuck in far enough to hold, neither 
of which happens often. 
21. Q. You can quite confidently state that the loss of seals killed by white hunters 
would not exceed 4 or 5 per cent.?—A. I can. 
22. Q. This you base upon your own personal knowledge?—A. Yes. 
23. Q. How many of a crew do you carry on your vessel?—A. Six boats, that is, 
six hunting boats, and a stern boat, seven in all. 
24. Q. Your ship’s company would be how many ?—A. Twenty-three men. 
25. Q. And the number of hunters?—A. Six hunters, or, counting the stern boat, 
seven hunters. 
26. Q. Your catch last year was how many skins?—A, On the coast, 848 skins. 
27. Q. Of that number, how many would be breeding seals?—A. I do not think 
there would be more than 15 per cent.—about 126 female skins. 
28. Q. What percentage of them would be barren femala skins?—A. About 10 per 
cent. 
29. Q. Is the percentage of bearing cows greater than of barren cows?-—A. Yes; 
every year in my experience there have been more bearing cows than barren. 
176 30. Q. About 15 per cent., then, would be bearing cows, and 10 per cent. 
barren ones?—A. Yes. 
31. Q. You stated that it would entirely depend upon the groups you struck along 
the coast whether you got-males or females?—A. Yes. 
32, Q. And you base your figures upon four years’ experience?-—A. Yes. 
33. Q. Then you know the percentage of bearing cows would be 15 per cent., and 
the barren cows 10 per cent.?—A. Yes. The first year I was with my brother I 
believe we had not more than 10 per cent. of cow seals; one of our seasons we had 
at least 90 per cent. bulls. 
34. Q. That statement applies to Behring’s Sea?—A. Yes. 
30. Q. What year was that?—A. 1889, when I was with my brother as mate of 
ee Sapphire.” The catch on the coast up to Behring’s Sea was about 90 per cent. 
yulls. 
36. Q. In the Behring’s Sea, what percentage of females had you, as compared 
with males—I am told there are.less bulls?—A. I think the percentage of bulls in 
Behring’s Sea is less than on the coast. 
37. Q. Bachelor bulls?—A. Yes. The greater percentage would be cows—bearing 
cows; after they have dropped their young we don’t get them in Behring’s Sea. 
38. Q. Do you not find a lot of bachelor bulls hovering about the outskirts of the 
groups of seals?—A. Yes, we get some, but there are more females in Behring’s Sea. 
39. Q. Did you find it so last year?—A. Of course I was not in Behring’s Sea long 
enough to know. 
40. Q, Your remarks, then, would not apply to last season?—A. No. 
