560 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
6. Q. As a matter of fact, are'there more seals shot while sleeping than while they 
are travelling?—A. That is hard tosay, but I think there are just as many shot while 
moving as there are sleeping seals. : ; 
7. Q. When you shoot seals by sleeping, what is the safe shooting distance?—A. 
About 25 yards. 
8. Q. And when travelling?—A, About 45 to 50 yards. 
9. Q. The usual mark you shoot at is the head of the seal?—A. Yes. 
10. Q. When hit in the head, the seal does not sink ?—A. No; sometimes he does, 
though, if he is shot when short of wind at the moment, and he will sink if you are 
too far away to pull it out. 
11. Q. You have noticed them sinking ?—A. Yes; they generally sink tail first. 
12. Q. If the seal is shot in the head, he drops his head, and that confines the 
breast, and it floats?—A. Yes, that is the way I have accounted for them floating. 
13. Q. How many seals, in your experience, do you think a hunter loses out of, 
say, 100 shot at?—A. I know my head hunter killed 498 seals last year, and 17 of 
them sunk, 
14, Q. That would be about 34 per cent.?—A. Yes. 
15. Q. Do you consider that a fair average on the number of seals lost?—A. As 
an experienced hunter, I think it is a fair average. 
179 16. Q. Would you say that a man who loses, say, 5 per cent. of the seal he 
shoots would not be an experienced huuter?—A. He could not lose more than 
that. 
17. Q. Will that percentage of loss apply to the travelling seals as well as to the 
sleeping seals?—A. Yes, the most of the seals lost are the ones shot by the ones moy- 
ing or travelling. 
18. Q. Your boats carry pole, spear, and:gaff?—A. Yes; and if the seal sinks down 
10 or 15 feet they are easily recovered. 
19. Q. If you were on your oath, now, and heard any one say that for every seal 
that was killed, male or female, one was lost, you would say it was a missiatement ?— 
A. Yes; that is not so. 
20. Q. If any one came here and said that for every seal you hit you killed another 
seal—— ?—A. That is nonsense. 
21. Q. The highest percentage of loss, you say, would be 5 per cent. for sinking 
seals?—A. Yes; and I may say that I have taken seals with shot in them, dropped 
out when skinning, and they seemed as strong and healthy as ever. 
22. Q. That is to say, that unless you shoot a seal in a vital part, the wound heals 
quickly ?—A. Yes; and unless you hit it hard the seal gets away. 
23. Q@. You have seen females with young?—A. No; I never saw them carrying 
their young in the water. 
24, Q. Down the coast the seals are pretty well divided, are they not?—A. Yes. 
25. Q. The cows travel by themselves, and the bulls by themselves?—A. Yes. 
26. Q. Did you say that you have caught more bull seals than cow seals during the 
season?—A. Yes, along the coast; but when I got up and up I got more bulls than 
cows. 
27. Q. What months have you seen more cows in proportion than other months ?— 
A. In February, March, and April. 
28. Q. But even when you see more cows the average of the seals killed is in 
favour of the bulls, is it not?—A. No; it is about equal. 
29. Q. Yousay the cows travel quicker towards the Behring’s Sea?—A. Yes; when 
we get further up the cow seals seem to leave the bulls behind. 
30. Q. Has it always been so?—A. Yes; J have got 181 seals in a day, and nota 
cow amongst them, but you sometimes get one. I think the average is abont one in 
ninety. 
31. Q. You always get more bulls than cows?—A. Yes, up there. 
32. Q. How many out of every hundred seals you had on board your vessel last 
year would be females?—A. I think fully a half of them would be cows. 
33. Q. How many of them would be bearing cows, and how many of them would 
be barren cows?—A. Of bearing cows, I think about 18 or 20 per cent. would be 
bearing cows. Ido not think there would beso many as that. I had 2,000, and I 
think there would be only about 12 or 14 per cent. with pups; the others would be 
what are called barren cows, and a lot of them would be dry cows. 
34. Q. With the barren cows and the ones bearing young you say would make up 
about half your catch?—A. Yes; about half and half. 
35. Q. The proportion of males and females, though, depends upon the crowds or 
groups you get into?—A. Yes; it depends upon the band you strike. 
36. Q. You never, at any time, had more females than males in any of your 
catches?—A. No, never. 
37. Q. While in Behring’s Sea during the last four years had you ever heard of any 
Canadian schooners ‘‘raiding” the Pribyloff Islands?—A. No. I never heard of any 
of my crew being engaged in such. Several of my crews told me of the American 
sealers raiding them, but I never heard of a Canadian vessel doing so, 
