342 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



The honorable the minister of marine and fisheries would bo pleased if you will 

 obtain the information as aboAe intimated and classified, or such of it as is procura- 

 ble, and forward it to this department at your earliest convenience. 



With regard to section 8, touching the expert inspection of skins when landed, 

 with a view to determining the sex of the animals from which they were taken, it 

 is presumed that no measures of this nature have hitherto been adopted at Victoria 

 or Vancouver. 



The department would, however, like to have your opinion as to the practicability 

 and value of such a means and its effectiveness toward the end in view. 



Also, if it is considered to be reliable in establishing the sexes of the seals killed, 

 whether, in your opinion, it could bo adopted, and whether, in view of the log records 

 on this point required by the terms of the award, such a course, if practicable and 

 effective, would be necessary or useful. 



It may be that the adoption of an inspection of this character would, by the check 

 it aftorded, insure more careful attention to the examination by the masters of the 

 vessels of the seals killed at sea and greater accuracy in their consequent log entries. 

 I have the honor, etc., 



John Hardie, 

 Aetbig Deputii Minister Marine and Fisheries. 



A. E. Milne, Esq., 



Collector of Customs, Victoria, British Columbia. 



[Annex C to O. C. No. 883 J, April 26, 1895.] 



Customs Canada, 

 Victoria, British Columbia, March SO, 1S95. 



Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 8th instant, 

 conveying the information that a request had been made by the United States Sec- 

 retary of State for certain information in respect of the Canadian sealing fleet and 

 their operations during the seasons of 1893 and 1894, and that such request had been 

 communicated to the Government by his excellency Her Majesty's ambassador at 

 Washington. 



In compliance therewith, I beg to transmit herewith the information asked for 

 touching the operations during those two years and are arranged under the following 

 headings: 



(1) The total number of seals taken by British vessels in the North Pacific Ocean 

 and Bering Sea, both on the Asiatic and American sides. 



(2) The total number of skins landed at British ports by said vessels. 



(3) The total number transshipped in Japanese or Russian ports, including any 

 that may have been ultimately entered at Victoria. 



(4) The number of skins lauded as entered at Victoria by American vessels. 



(5) A report as to the sex of all skins taken in Bering Sea and the North Pacific 

 Ocean. 



(6) Location of the place of catch by latitude and longitude. 



(7) The names of all vessels employed, tonnage, number of crew, and number of 

 seal hunters, indicating whether whites or Indians. 



(8) The further request is made that information may be given as to whether the 

 skins taken by the Canadian pelagic sealers were examined as to sex by exjiert 

 inspectors, as was done in the case of skins entered in United States ports. 



The skins taken by Canadian pelagic sealers were not examined as to sex by expert 

 inspectors at the time of landing from the vessels at this port or at Vancouver. 



A general denial is made that the seal skins were, on being landed at United Stateo 

 ports — namely, at San Francisco and Puget Sound — examined as to sex by expert 

 in8])ectors. 



No confidence is entertained here in the Ameiican statement made that <an expert 

 examination of the skins was held, as such would be unreliable and uncertain when 

 separating the females from the males at time of landing, which could mainly be 

 determined by the teats of the animals, it being a well-known fact that males have 

 such as well as females, and quite a number of females have been barren — that is, 

 have been barren during the season or longer — and the males have teats as prominent 

 on the skin as the barren females. 



Parties interested in sealing state that in San Francisco and here a young, inexpe- 

 rienced lad was sent by Liebes Bros., the largest furriers of that city, to examine 

 some seal skins landed which they were about to purchase, but the reliable sealers 

 and furriers say that such was a jierfect farce, he not having the experience and 

 intelligence requisite to determine such. 



In the past this matter has been the subject of much discussion here among those 



