THE DEPONENTS AND THEIR EXPERIENCE. 55 



Tread well, who has succeeded to the business carried ou by his father. 

 It has always been a part of my occupation, beginning with the age of 

 11, to handle fur-seal skins, and during the last twenty years I have 

 handled nearly every seal-skin that came into the factory. I have for 

 many years been in the habit of putting them through every process 

 connected with their preparation for manufacture, except that of dye- 

 ing, with which I am not familiar. I have removed the flesh and blub- 

 ber; I have washed the skins; removed the hair or " picked " them, 

 shaved them, and dressed them; and in this way I have constantly 

 gone over and closely observed every part of their surfaces in all stages 

 or processes through which they pass before they go to the dyer. 



Personally appeared before me, Thos. 1ST. Molloy, consul of the United 

 States of America for Newfoundland, Richard Pike, master mariner ot St. 

 Johns aforesaid, who being duly sworn before me, 

 upon his oath says: I am a master mariner. I Richard Pike, p. 592. 

 have been engaged in the prosecution of the seal 



fishery on the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland for forty-four 

 years, twenty years of which I have been master of a steamer. 



Mr. Henry Poland, being duly sworn, doth depose and say: That he 

 is 40 years of age and a subject of Her Britannic 

 Majesty; that he is the head of the firm of P. R. Henry Poland, p. 570. 

 Poland & Son doing business at 110 Queen Vic- 

 toria street, in the city of London, and has been engaged in that busi- 

 ness twenty-one years; that the said firm of P. R. Poland & Son are do- 

 ing business as fur and skin merchants, and have been engaged in that 

 business for over one hundred years, having been founded by deponent's 



great-grandfather in the year 1785, and having been continued without 

 interruption since that date from father to son; that for many years 

 last past deponent's said firm have been in the habit of buying large 

 numbers of fur-seal skins, in tact ever since skins of that character 

 have become an article of commerce, both on their own account and on 

 commission for other persons resident in the United States and Canada 

 and elsewhere; that by reason of having purchased so many skins de- 

 ponent has a general and substantial knowledge of the history of the 

 fur-seal skin business, and of the character and kinds of fur seal skins 

 coming upon the London market. 



Edwin P, Porter, being duly sworn, deposes and says: My age is 25 

 years; residence, Victoria, British Columbia; oc- 

 cupation, seaman and seal-hunter. I went out Edwin P. Porter p. 346. 

 sealing as boat-steerer on the British schooner 

 Penelope. * * * I think it was in the year 1888. * * * In 1889 

 I went as boat-steerer on the British schooner Ariel. * * * In 1891, 

 I sailed as boat-steerer in the British schooner Umbrina. * * This 

 year [1892] I went as boat-steerer in the British steamer Thistle. 



Charles W. Price, having been duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 

 34 years of age and reside in San Francisco. My 

 occupation is that of a fur-dresser and examiner chas. w. Price, p. 521. 

 of raw fur skins. I have been engaged in the 



dressing and examining of fur skins about twenty-years, and I am an 

 expert in that business. I have examined and handled large numbers 

 of fur-seal skins, both of the American and Russian side, and can easily 

 distinguish one from the other trom the appearance of the skins. 



