DISTINCTION BETWEEN HERDS. 97 



far, and there are also apparent slight differences in the shape of the 

 skins. 



The differences between the skins of the three catches are so marked 

 that tliey have always been expressed in the different prices obtained 

 for the skins. I have attended the sales for many years, and am able 

 to make this statement from my own knowledge. The average prices 

 obtained at the sales of the last year's catch for instance were as fol- 

 lows: For the Alaska skins, 125s. per skin; for the Copper skins, 08s. 

 per skin; and for the Northwest skins, 53s. per skin. 



The skins of the Alaska and Copper catches are readily distinguished 

 from each other and command different prices in 



market, and I should have no difficulty and would Emll Teichmann, p. 5S0. 

 undertake from my knowledge of the various skins 



to separate Copper skins from Alaska skins should they ever be found 

 mingled together, as, however, they are not. The Alaska and Copper skins 

 are distinguishable from each other partly by means of the different color. 

 The Copper Island skins generally have a darker top hair and are more 

 yellow on the cheeks that the Alaska skins. Perhaps a surer means of 

 distinguising the two is the difference in shape. The Copper Island 

 skins are much narrower at the head than the Alaska skins, and this 

 difference is very marked. In our warehouses we have a different set of 

 frames for the sizing out of the Copper skins from those we use for the 

 Alaska skins. Another difference quite as important as the shape is that 

 the fur upon Copper Island skins is considerably shorter on the Hanks 

 and toward the tail than is the fur of the Alaska skins. All of these 

 differences are so marked, as I have before stated, as to enable any 

 expert, or one familiar with the handling of skins, to readily distin- 

 guish Copper from Alaska skins, or vice versa, but it is true in the case 

 of very young animals the differences are much less marked than in the 

 case of the adult animal. We receive practically no skins of very young 

 animals from Alaska, but we do receive at times a certain number of 

 the skins of the young animals from Copper. All the skins of both the 

 Copper and Alaska catches are the skins ot the male animals. 



The skins of the Northwest catch are in turn readily distinguishable 

 from the skins of the Alaska as well as the Copper catch. The dif- 

 ferences which I have enumerated between the Copper and Alaska 

 skins are accentuated in distinguishing the skins of the Northwest 

 catch from the skins of the Copper catches, and we use a separate set 

 of frames or patterns in our business for the Northwest skins from what 

 we use for the Copper or Alaska skins. Among what are classed by 

 us as Northwest skins are included what are sometimes called Japanese 

 skins, which are the skins of seals killed on the northern Asiatic coasts. 

 These skins come upon the market generally by way of Japan, but some- 

 times by way of San Francisco or Victoria. 



The skins of each of the several catches are readily distinguish- 

 able from each other by any person at all experi- 

 enced in the handling of seal skins; and the skins Henry Treadwell, p. 525. 

 of the Northwest, Alaska, or Copper catch are 



none of them found, except under those titles; that is to say, that skins 

 of the "Copper" catch are not found among the "Alaska" seal-skins, 

 nor those of the Northwest catch among the Alaska or Copper seal- 

 skins. The skins of the three catches are so readily distinguishable 

 from each other that deponent says he would be able, on the examina- 

 tion of the skins as they are taken from the barrels in which they are 

 7 B s 



