SALTING AND KENCHING. 257 



The salting is done in rows of bins called "kenches." Each skin is 

 thrown to the man in the kench, who quickly spreads it, flesh side 

 up, and a third shovels salt enough upon it to completely cover its 

 surface. The next skin is spread in the same way above the first, and 

 so on with alternate layers of skins and salt until the kench is full. 

 Here they lie from five to seven days and are then shaken out, any 

 curled edges are unrolled and salted, and the skins are folded with a 

 small quantity of salt between the folds, and again piled to complete 

 the curing process. A few days later they are once more pulled apart 

 and spread out, sprinkled with a handful of salt and rolled and tied in 

 compact, cylindrical bundles containing two skins each, flesh sides 

 together. In this shape they are lightered from the warehouses to the 

 vessel in the skin boats built by the natives, and shipped to San Fran- 

 cisco, where they are packed in casks holding from fifty to sixty skins 

 each, and forwarded to London, via New York, by railroad and steamer. 



The practice of salting the skins was followed to some extent by the 

 Russians during the last few years prior to the cession of Alaska to the 

 United States, and in nearly every particular the management of the 

 sealeries by the Americans is the same as that pursued by the Russians 

 during the last years of their occupation. 



INCREASE. 



Page 164 of Tlie Case. 



From the start I was employed by the Alaska Commercial Company 

 and remained in their service until 187G, in charge 

 of the companies' business on St. George Island. Geo. R. Adams, p. 157. 

 In 1871 we took 25,000 seals on that island, and 



the regular quota each year thereafter. During the season of 187G I 

 was in charge of their business at St. Paul Island. We had no diffi- 

 culty during my seven years' residence at the island in obtaining the 

 full quota: nor could I discover at any time any diminution of the 

 number of seals annually hauling up at the island. When the period 

 arrived for their coming to land, the shore literally swarmed with seal 

 life. * * * I observed a perceptible increase annually in the number 

 of females arriving at the island, due, in my judgment, to the care ex- 

 ercised by those charged with their custody. 



Good management upon the island increased the seal life for many 

 successive years, and the same management con- 

 tinued, as 1 believe, to the present time. ' ' ls ' p ' ' 



For the first few years I was on the islands the rookeries grew larger 

 every year, and I was told by the natives and 

 others that they had grown a good deal since the John Armstrong, p. 1. 

 Americans first took them. 



I have examined the breeding areas of 1870, indicated by H. H Mc- 

 Intyre on charts A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, of St. 

 Paul Island, and they are, to the best of my chas. Bryant, p. 3. 

 knowledge and belief, correct. 1 have also ex- 

 amined the areas of increase shown by him upon the same charts as 

 applicable to the breeding rookeries in 188U, and they were proportion- 

 ately correct in 1877, the last year of my stay upon the islands, the in- 

 17 B s 



