96 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



shipment left the islands April 7 on the Bureau's tender Eider ^ was 

 transferred to the Alaska Steamship Co.'s steamship Victoria at 

 Unalaska on April 19 for shipment to Seattle, Wash., and left the 

 latter place on April 27 for St. Louis by freight via Northern Pacific 

 to Minnesota Transfer and Chicago, I^urlington & Quincy, arriving 

 at St. Louis May 20. 



On June 22 the U. S. S. Saturn took the remainder of the 1919 

 skins from St. Paul Island; the shipment was made up of 37 casks 

 containing 505 skins. The Saturn proceeded to Bremerton, Wash., 

 from Avhich place the skins were forwarded July 7 to St. Louis by 

 the same route as the first shipment. They arrived at St. Louis 

 Julv 26. 



The third shipment consisted of 476 casks containing 21,929 skins 

 from St. Paul Island and 2-1 casks containing 1,133 skins from St. 

 George Island; all were skins of the 1920 take. The skins were 

 placed on board the Saturn November 25 for transportation to 

 Seattle. Wash., left that place December 6, and arrived at St. 

 Louis December 15, having been shipped by freight via Northern 

 Pacific to Billings, and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy to St. Louis. 

 This shipment made remarkably good time between Seattle and St. 

 Louis, arriving in a little less than nine days. 



Thirteen specimen skins were also shipped during the year. Four 

 of these were from St. George Island and nine from St. Paul Island. 

 The skins were brought south on the Saturn, arrived at Seattle 

 September 26, and were shipped from there by express to the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural Histoiy at New York City. 



Fox skins. — A single shipment of fox skins Vv^as made during 1920. 

 This shipment consisted of 4 cases containing 155 blue and 33 white 

 fox skins from St. Paul Island and 18 cases containing 746 blue and 

 4 white skins from St. George Island, a total of 938 skins. These 

 cases were shipped in the same manner as the first shipment of seal- 

 skins as far as 'Seattle, via the Bureau's vessel Eider and the com- 

 mercial steamer Victoria, and from Seattle to St. Louis by express, 

 where the/ arrived May 3. 



SALES OF FUR-SEAL SKINS. 



Two sales of dressed, dyed, and macliined fur-seal skins from the 

 Pribilof Islands Avere held in St. Louis during the calendar year 1920. 

 One was on Februarv 2 and the other May 10, at which times 9,100 

 and 5,752 skins were sold at auction for totals of $1,282,905 and 

 $424,166, respectively. 



The highest price secured at the February sale Avas for a lot of 

 70 skins, which brought $177 each; the average price obtained was 

 $140.97, an increase of nearly 55 per cent over the average price at 

 the preceding sale in September, 1919. At the sale in May the maxi- 

 mum price was $125 per skin on tAvo lots of wigs, 50 skins in each 

 lot. The average price for the May sale was $73.74, shoAving a 

 decrease of about 48 per cent as compared Avith the February sale. 



The first tAvo of the following tnl)les shoAV details regarding the 

 prices secured for each lot of skins in the tAvo sales ; the third table 

 is a summary shoAving prices obtained for the skins in the various 

 trade classes, Avith the percentages Avhich the number of the skins in 

 these seA'eral classes bore to the totals in each sale. 



