FUR-SEAL SERVICE. 



83 



Owino; to the small number of seals taken, practically no seal meat 

 was available for saltinfj^ for winter use and none was preserved for 

 fox food: nor was it possible to send any seal meat to Unalaska, as 

 has hitherto been the custom, for the use of natives there. 



Followinti^ is a detailed statement of the killings: 



Seals Killed on St. Paul and St. George Islands in the Year Ended 

 August 11, 1912. 



AUTHENTICATION OF SEALSKINS. 



Article III of the convention of July 7, 1911, for the protection 

 of the fur seals and the sea otters of the North Pacific, engages each 

 of the signatory powers to prevent the importation into their territory 

 of any skins of fur seals belonging to any of the three species inhabiting 

 the North Pacific except such as "liave been officially marked and 

 certified" as having been legally taken. 



To carry out the provision of the treaty requiring the marking of 

 all skins from seals authorized to be taken from the PribUof herd, 

 the Bureau last spring furnished the Islands with 11,000 leather tags 

 (St. Paul 8,000 and St. George 3,000 tags), those on St. Paul being 

 severally numbered Pi to PSOOO, and those on St. George from Gl 

 to G3000. These numbers were deeply stamped into the tags and 

 not printed thereon, in order that the action of salt and water might 

 not obliterate the numbera. 



