APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 963 
42, Q. Were the seals apparently harder to approach than they were in previous 
years?—A. No; I can’t say that I saw any difference, 
43. Q. How do the seals generally travel ?—A. Asarule the bulls travel separately, 
and quite a distance apart generally. 
44. Q. What is your experience in hunting as to the number of seals lost after 
being hit?—A. I shou!d think from 3 to 5 per cent. would cover all. 
45. Q. What is the usual manner in which seals are lost?---A. Well, if the seal is 
in a certain position and shot so as to allow the air to escape, the seal will be lost. 
As long as the head sinks below the water first, the seal will not sink. ‘They very 
rarely sink in any case. 
46. Q. You carry a spear on a gaff, don’t you?—A. Yes; it is carried to spear the 
seals when they are going down. 
47. Q. From your experience in sealing, you consider that from 38 to 5 per cent. 
would cover the total loss of seals, after being shot, through sinking?—A. Yes. 
48. Q. When you shoot a seal at a distance, and do not shoot them in a vital part, 
they make off, do they?—A. Yes. 
49, Q. You don’t consider that lost, then?—A. No; we don’t consider the seal lost 
unless it sinks. 
50. Q. Have you handled more males than females during the past twotyears?— 
A. I should say more males. 
51. Q. Have you any idea of the proportion of males—would there be two males 
to one female?—A. I should say from 70 to 80 per cent., or about three males to one 
female. 
52. Q. In what months do you consider that there are most females killed ?—A. 
During the months of April and May. There are apparently more females, but not 
as many as males. 
53. Q. You have never known of any Canadian schooners raiding the seal islands 
have you?—A. I have never heard of a Canadian, but I have of the American. 
54. Q. During the time that you have been to Behring’s Sea, you would have heard 
of it?—A. I would certainly have heard of it. 
55. Q. You have always sailed out of this port?—A. Yes, Sir. 
(The above having been read over to Richard Thomson, he corroborates and sub- 
stantiates the same.) 
(Signed) R. THoMson, Hunter. 
Sworn to at Victoria, British Columbia, before me, this 18th day of January, 1892. 
(Signed) A, R. MILNE, Collector of Customs. 
183 Victoria, B. C., January 22, 1892. 
Andrew Laing, called and examined by Collector A. R. Milne: 
1. Q. You are one of the oldest seal-hunters in the province, Mr. Laing ?—A. I have 
been ten years at it. 
2. Q. Your knowledge of sealing really goes beyond the present knowledge of the 
average sealer?—A. I have had as much experience as any of them; I think I know 
as much as any of them. 
3. Q. Your observations on the west coast extend beyond the advent of the sealing 
business in Behring’s Sea?—A. Yes. I went on the coast in 1871, and have been seal- 
ing with natives for the last twenty-one years. 
4. Q. You had ample opportunity of observing the life and habits of the seals?—A. 
Yes. 
5. Q. From those observations last year did you notice any perceptible or material 
decrease in the number of seals?—A. None whatever. ° 
6. Q. It was generally reported last year they were more numerous than the year 
before?—A. Yes. I think if anything they were a little more numerous than 1890. 
7. Q. Does that remark apply to full-grown?—A. To full-grown and mid-sized. 
8. Q. What direction do the seals on the coast usually come from?—A. They come 
from the south, following the herring, which spawn on the west coast and different 
places, and the seal follow those fish into the shore or far out, as the case may be. 
The natives get a great number of these seals among a school of herring. 
9. Q. What is the usual distance which the natives hunt away from shore?—A. In 
the spring they will hunt 10 or 15 miles off, later in the season 20 or 25 miles. I have 
seen them 40 miles from the land. 
10. Q. How long does the hunting of the seal on the west coast usually last?—A, 
Commences in February, or the latter end of January, and lasts till the Ist June, 
when you get more or less seals; you can get a few stragglers in July. 
11. Q. And the tendency of the seals is from the south?—A. Yes, following their 
food fish, 
