136 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



gentlemen wlio liaiulled the isorth Pacific collection, up to and inclnd- 

 ing' the year 18S9, and all agreed that the skins were nearly all from 

 females. It may not be out of place to explain that the smaller value 

 of the female seal, especially after the birth of her pup, is in a measure 

 due to the wearing- of the fur around the teats. The amount of mer- 

 chantable fur being reduced to that extent, makes it necessary for the 

 handlers of skins to observe carefully whether pelts are male or female, 

 as well as their general condition. They make a complete classification, 

 and being experts in their business are not likely to make mistakes. 

 (Theo. T. Williams.) 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



Deposition of Maurice Windmiller, furrier, San Francisco. 



State of California, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss: 



Maurice Windmiller, having been duly sworn, deposes and says: My 

 age is 46; I reside in San Francisco; my occupation is that of a furrier. 

 I have been engaged in the fur business all my life, and my father was 

 a furrier before me. I am an expert in dressed and undressed, raw, and 

 made-up furs, and also a dealer and manufacturer in the same. I have 

 bought and examined large numbers of fur-seal skins during the last 

 twelve years caught by sealing schooners both on the American and 

 Kussian side of the North Pacific and Bering Sea, and I can easily dis- 

 tinguish one from the other. 



The Eussian seal is a smaller seal, and the fur is not as close as the 

 fur of the Alaska seal, nor as good quality. They are an entirely dif- 

 ferent herd from those on the American side, and their skins have pecu- 

 liar characteristics by which it is not difficult to separate them. In 

 examining and purchasing seal skins from the schooners in their raw 

 state 1 have observed that 90 per cent of their catch are females. I 

 know that to be a fact because the heads of the females are smaller, 

 the bellies larger, and the teats can be plainly seen. The teats show 

 more plainly when tlie skin is dressed and dyed. In examining the 

 seals taken by sealing schooners I have found most of them perforated 

 with shot, making them much less valuable thereby. Formerly more 

 of them used to be killed with a rifle, which did not injure the skins 



as much. 



Maurice Windmiller, 



general seal-skin industry. 



Deposition of Joseph D. Williams, furrier, New TorJe, 



State of New York, 



City and County of New Yoric, ss: 

 Joseph D. Williams, being duly sworn, says that he is 74 years of 

 age, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Brooklyn, in the 

 State of New York; that he has been engaged in the business of dress- 

 ing and dyeing fur-seal skins continuously for fifteen years past, and 

 prior to that time, at intervals during the whole time he has been 

 engaged in business, during a period of some fifty-odd years, he has 



