APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. _ 965 
females having young on the kelp, too, but I don’t think that isso. Some hunters 
report of seeing pups off Middleton’s Island, but I think that is impossible. 
41. Q. Have you ever seen them cut a pup out of the female seal?—A. Yes; and 
Ihave seen the pup so cut out walk or move about the deck of the vessel, and I 
have tried to raise it. I have also thrown it into the water, and have seen it swim 
about like a young dog; I have seen it keep afloat for fifteen minutes, as long as the 
vessel was within sight. On the islands, the mother seal will take the young and 
force them into the water to teach them to swim. They will never take the water 
freely themselves for from six weeks to two months. 
42. Q, You think they will swim 50 yards probably, or 100 yards?—A. Yes; but 
don’t think they could live continually in the water if they were born in it. 
43. Q@. When you strike the seals on the west coast, what would you say was the 
usual distance per day that the seals travel?—A. That is impossible to say; it 
depends upon their food. 
44, Q. That is, they linger longer over good food than otherwise?—A. Yes; I — 
remember in, I think, 1888, where an Indian threw his spear at aseal, and his line 
broke, it was near the Shumigan Isiands, and he took the same seal the next day— 
we lay-to all night—and he recovered his own iron spear-head. That might show 
the distance they move in, say, « night, because it did not travel far. 
45. @. When you lower - your boats two Indians go to a canoe?—A. Yes, and both 
paddle. 
185 46. Q. The Indian in the bow keeps his spear right before?—A. Yes. 
47, Q. And he throws it at the animal, and strikes it where?—A. It makes no 
difference where they are hit. They try when shooting to hit in the head. 
48. Q. When a seal is struck, or wounded, what time does it require to heal?—A. 
It heals very rapidly. 
49. Q. What time does it require to get the seal aboard after it is speared?—A. 
Not more than two minutes when they spear, and not as long as that when they 
shoot it. 
50. Q. What is the usual length of the sealing-boat?—A. About 20 feet. 
51. Q. And the canoe?—A. About 22 feet. 
52. Q. Isit not a fact that sealing in these small boats in the stormy spring months 
is a very hazardous undertaking ?—A. Yes. 
53. Q. It is commonly reported that our seal-hunters, both Whites and Indians, 
are more expert than any others on the coast?—A. That isso. They are the most 
expert. 
54. Q. It is said also that unless the weather is very tempestuous nothing will 
retard them?—A. Yes; they go out every chance they can get. 
55. Q. The loss of a full-sized skin meant the last two years how much to the 
hunter?—A. About 3 dollars per skin. 
56. Q. What is the largest number which you ever saw an Indian canoe bring 
aboard in one day?—A. Forty-eight in one canoe, in Behring’s Sea. 
57. Q. On the coast, how many ?—A. Thirty-four; that is over the average. 
58. Q. In leaving the schooner, how far do the hunters, both Indians and Whites, 
go?—A. They go as far as 10 or 12 miles, sometimes 15 ‘miles, from the vessel, till 
they can just see the tops of her sail. 
59. Q. And this in pretty rough weather?—A. Yes; pretty rough. It might be 
smooth when they go out, but it often comes on rough before they can get back. 
60. Q. In following the seals up the coast in February, March, and April, and 
May and June, where do you begin to get them in larger numbers?—A. Off Queen 
Charlotte Islands. 
61. At this time, are the females in advance of the males, seemingly hastening 
to the sea?—A. They get through as soon as they can, the males in advance of 
the females—they haul out first. 
62. Q. Some sealers think the cows go ahead?—A. The males haul out and each 
one gets his batch of females, and as the cows come in they make up their herd of 
females, 
63. Q. Have you ever, when with sealers, heard the percentage of loss talked of ?— 
A. No; I have never heard it mentioned with sealers. 
64. Q. You speak from your experience with Indians? Your percentage of loss of 
1 in 10 would be based on actual experience with Indian hunters?—A. Yes; 1 in 10. 
65. Q@. You have stated that in the month of May you think there would be more 
females than in the other months of the season? At that time what part of the ocean 
would you be?—A. Up off Queen Charlotte Island. 
66. Q. You have alk stated that the more plentiful the food, the slower the seals 
travel?—A. Yes; they stay longer where the food is. 
67. Q. At the end of any of your seasons, have you actually counted the number 
of females you had in your cargo?—A. I have never done so. 
68. Q. Have you any idea of your last year’s catch, what proportion of females 
you had in the coast catch?—A. I think there would be about 3 males in 5—3 males 
to 2 females, 
