304 KEFOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



import duty on the prepared skins; nor is it due to the lack of expert 

 workmen. The principal reason is that the raw skins are sold in 

 London and harmonious cooperation exists among the fur-brokers, 

 fur-dressers, and bankers there, so that a first payment may be made 

 on skins purchased in the fall, and most of the purchase money be 

 withheld until the skins have been dressed, dyed, and made ready for 

 manufacture six or eight months later. 



In estimating the industrial value of the manufacture of fur-seal 

 articles in the United States, seven of the principal furriers made 

 affidavit in 1S92, as follows: 



The number of Alaska fur-seal skins that are imported annually into the United 

 States, after dressing and dyeing in London, is, upon the ba«i« of the importations 

 during the past ten years and upon a catch of 100,000 skins at the Pribilof Islands, 

 correctly estimated at 65,000 to 75,000. The value, before paying duty thereon to 

 the United States, of each dressed and dyed fur-seal skin so imported, may be said 

 to range between |15 and $50, with an average value during the past ten years of about 

 $25 per skin. The wages paid annually to people engaged in the manufacture and 

 remodeling of seal-skin articles are, on an average, about $7 a skin, or upon 70,000 

 skins, $490,000. The profits made annually by merchants, wholesale furriers, and 

 retail furriers amount to about $30 a skin, or upon 70,000 skins $2,100,000. The 

 amount of silk consumed annually in the manufacture in the United States of 70,000 

 fur-seal skins into articles and in the repairing of these articles may be estimated at 

 $150,000 to $200,000. All silk which is being so consumed at the present time is 

 made in the United States. Working men and women are employed in the industry 

 of manufacturino; seal-skin articles in the United States as follows: 



Classification. 



Num- j Wages per 

 ber. diem. 



Fur-cutters (i.e., people who trim, repair, and prepare the general shape of 

 skins) 



Nailers (i. e., people wlm stretch and nail skins into shape on boards) 



Sewers and finishers ( i . c. iMMipk' who put the article into final shape) 



Those who machine skins (i. o., remove the portion of guard hairs left by 

 the unhairers) 



1,200 



600 



1,500 



60 



$3. 50 to 14. 50 

 2. 00 2. r,o 

 1.50 2.0U 



Total. 



3,360 



The fur-cutters represent skilled labor of a high order. No account is taken of 

 porters, clerks, salesmen, etc., employed in the large establishments." 



Owing to the smaller quantity of skins received on the market at 

 the present time, the number of persons employed in manufacturing 

 them into garments is much less than in 1802, probabl}' not over (>() 

 per cent as many. The total number of persons actively employed at 

 present in various parts of the Avorld in handling fur-seal skins from 

 the live animals to the finished garments probably aggregates 4,000, 

 and the total value of the product $6,000,000 or $8,000,000 annually. 



METHODS OF DRESSING AND DYEING. 



The present method of dressing fur-seal skins represents the highest 

 development in the fur-dresser's art. The difi'erence in appeai-ance 

 between a raw and a finished pelt of beaver, otter, or muskrat is com- 



'1 Fur-seal Arbitration, Washingdm, isy5, Vol. Ill, p. 526. 



