98 THE ALASKAN SEAL HERD. 



packed in salt and received by him, to detect at once in a barrel of 

 Alaska skins the skins of either the Copper or the Northwest catch; or 

 in a barrel of the Northwest catch the skins of either the Alaska or the 

 Copper catch, or in a barrel of the Copper catch the skins of either the 

 Alaska or Northwest catch. The skins of the Alaska and ( Jopper catches 

 are readily distinguishable from each other, although male skins: and 

 the skins of the Northwest catch are also readily distinguishable from 

 both the Copper and Alaska by the fact that they are almost all fe- 

 males, and all have marks of bullets, buckshot, or spears, showing that 

 they have been killed at sea. although the Northwest catch belong to 

 the Pribilof Island herd. * * * 



It is equally true that the skins of all the other catches which we had 

 in prior years were readily distinguishable from each other. I have not 

 seen the seals in their native rookeries, and cannot speak as to the 

 distinguishing traits of the live animal, but in the trade and in the ex- 

 perience of our firm we have always been able to distinguish readily 

 the skins coining from one locality from the skins coming from another. 

 1 remember upon one occasion my linn received a consignment of skins 

 from London which bore no marks familiar to us and which skins had 

 not been described to u\ and that my brother, who was then at the 

 head of the business, and who is now dead, said, after inspecting the 

 said skins, that they reminded him very much of what were formerly 

 called "south latitude skins," and particularly of some skins which he 

 had twenty odd years before from Santa Barbara, in California; and 

 upon inquiry from the Messrs. Lampson and Company we were informed 

 by them that the said skins were the skins of seals killed at Santa 

 Barbara. 



And the skins of the two herds of the Pribilof and Commander islands 

 may be so readily distinguished from each other 



C. A. Williams, p. 537. that an expert would have no difficulty in at once 

 throwing out from the catch taken on the Com- 

 mander Islands any skins of the Pribilof herd, and vice versa; and 

 deponent understands from persons who have had long experience in 

 the examination of the living animals that the two herds so differ as to 

 belong to separate species of the same genus, and can readily be dis- 

 tinguished horn each other. * ***** 



And the skins of these three catches, as deponent has before stated, 

 are readily distinguishable from each other and are are well recognized 

 in the trade as distinguishable from each other and the differences 

 between are clearly evinced in the different prices which have always 

 been obtained for the seal skins of the three catches; for instance, 

 the skins of the Alaska catch now command and have always com- 

 manded by 20 or 30 per cent a better price than skins of the same 

 size from the Copper catch; and this difference is also recognized by 

 the Russian Government, who lease the privilege of catching upon 

 the Commander Islands upon terms 25 per cent less than the terms 

 exacted by the United States for the lease catch upon the Pribilof 

 Islands. 



The Russian seal is a smaller seal, and the fur is not as close as the 

 fui' of the Alaska seal, nor as good quality. They 

 Maurice WindmVler, p. are an entirely different herd from those on the 

 550. American side, and their skins have peculiar char- 



acteristics by which it is not difficult to separate 

 them. 



