966 ‘APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
69. Q. That applies to the coast catch only?—A Yes; up to Kodiak. 
70. Q. In the Behring’s Sea, what proportion would it bear?—A. I think about 4 
males in 5—4 males to 1 female. 
71. Q. Were you in Behring’s Sea last year?—A. The vessel was. The way I 
account for getting so many males was, during the beginning of July and August, 
when the females would be ashore nursing their young a greater part of the time. 
72. Q. At any time in Behring’s Sea, what has been your nearest point of hunting 
to the seal islands?—A. I have never been closer in hunting than 30 miles—usually 
30 to 90 miles off. We got blown in there once, the only time I saw the island; we 
were within 10 miles of them then. 
73. Q. You never saw or heard of any schooners, or spoke any schooner, who made 
a boast of raiding the islands?—A. None belonging to us. I heard of the 
186 ‘‘ Webster,” ‘Mollie Adams,” the ‘‘ Hamilton Lewis,” and the German 
schooner ‘‘ Adele” raiding the islands. 
74, Q. All these were American schooners?—A. Yes; except the ‘‘Adele.” 
75. @. There is no doubt, then, among sealers, that these vessels did actually 
raid the islands?—A. It has been commonly reported, and I have no reason to 
disbelieve it. 
76. Q. Did any of those vessels at that time belong to Victoria?—A. No; they 
did not. 
77. Q. Can you advance any idea as to when the seals leave Behring’s Sea?—A. To 
the best of my knowledge, about the middle of October. 
78. Q. Isit the accepted idea that those seals which leave Behring’s Sea in the 
fall are the same that return in the spring?—A. That is my opinion. 
79. Q. You have never heard at any time any inducement ever offered by a captain 
or sailor from Victoria to ship men or to perform any work with the intention of 
raiding those islands?—A. Not from a Canadian vessel. 
80. Q. It is a fact that every ship-owner and master of Canadian vessels has 
deprecated the raiding of the islands, that is, have never agreed with it?—A. They 
do not agree with it at all. Every one I have spoken to are very well satisfied to go 
into the sea and get their catch legitimately. 
81. Q. You think there is ample field for hunting seals without raiding the 
islands?—A. Yes, I do. 
82. Q. Is it your opinion, Captain Laing, that with the increased number of 
schooners here and in San Francisco, there will be any material injury to the sealing 
industry ?—A. I do not think so. 
83. Q. From observations made last year, you are quite of the opinion that the 
seals were more plentiful than you had ever seen them before?—A. They were more 
plentiful last year, 1891, than the year before, 1890. 
84. Q. Is there any way you can account for that?—A. None whatever, unless it 
is the same as with any species of fish; some years you get more than others. There 
is no accounting for it. 
&. Q. Referring to the number of females caught in the spring, there are quite a 
number of the female scals barren, or have never borne young? You have noticed 
it?—A. Yes; some are barren that have had young, and others that have not borne. 
86. Q. When you speak of the proportion of females killed, you mean the barren 
cows as well as those that are bearing young?—A. Yes. 
87. Q. Have you formed any idea of the general average or percentage of females 
carrying young killed in April and May ?—A. I could not form any idea. 
&&. Q. Nor of barren cows?—A. No, Sir. 
89. @. Would you hazard a statement that all the females, both bearing and barren 
cows, were certainly less than the male seals taken?—A. Yes; certainly less in 
number, 
90. Q. If any one were to make the bold statement that for every male seal killed 
there is a female killed, would it be correct?—A. That would not be correct. 
91. Q. You have not heard any estimate of the percentage of barren females as 
compared with the bearing cows killed?—A. There are less of the barren cows killed 
in the spring than there are in the fall. I don’t think that they go as far south as 
the cows that bear young. 
92. Q. You say that in Behring’s Sea the males preponderate?—A. Yes. 
93. @. You cannot account for this, you say, except it be that the females are all 
ashore bearing young?—A. The males we get in the sea are all 3- or 4-year-olds, 
which the old wigs would not let ashore at all. 
94. Q. Are there any ‘ rookeries” along the coast of any extent?—A. | have never 
heard of one this side of the Shumigan Islands. 
95. Q. Year after year, hunting then, do you find them travelling along the same 
course ?—A. Yes, where their food is, from 15 to 35 miles out. 
96. @. Your opinion is that the percentage of loss as compared with those hit 
would not exceed 10 per cent. with Indian hunters?—A. How do you mean lost? 
97. Q. Yousay a seal hit and not killed is not lost if it escapes?—A. Yes, 
