TESTIMONY OF BRITISH FURRIERS. 411 



And hi the same way deponent thinks from his own personal expe- 

 rience in handling skins that he would have no 

 difficulty whatever in separating the skins of the Alfred Fraser, p. 558. 

 Northwest catch from the skins of the Alaska 



catch by reason of the tact that they are the skins almost exclusively 

 of females, and also that the fur upon the bearing female seals is 

 much thinner than upon the skin of the male seals ; the skin of the 

 animal while pregnant being extended and the fur extended over a 

 large area. 



That the said firm can distinguish very readily the source of produc- 

 tion of the skins when the latter are in their un- 

 dressed state: that for several years besides the fl , En ™\ Heri f, V- 558 

 skins of the regular companies, such as the Alas ka 



Company (American concessionaire) and the Copper Company (Russian 

 concessionaire) the said firm has bought quantities of skins called 

 Northwest Coast, Victoria, etc. That these skins are those of animals 

 caught in the open sea by persons who apparently derive therefrom 

 large profits, and nearly three-quarters of them are those of females 

 and pups, these probably being less difficult to take than the males; 

 that these animals are taken by being shot. 



That the seals taken by the Alaska and Copper companies are males; 

 the destruction of which is much less prejudicial to the preservation of 

 the race, and which furnish the best skins, these being finer and more 

 furnished with down; that they are killed on the islands with clubs. 

 That every animal killed by l>all or shot bears the traces of such 

 slaughter, which marks greatly depreciate the value of the skin. 



An essential point of difference between the skins of the Northwest 

 catch and the skins of the Alaska and Copper Is- 

 land catches consists in the fact that most of the r J[ alier K Martin > P- 

 Northwest skins are the skins of the female seal, 



while the Copper and Alaska skins are of tiie male seal. Deponent has 

 made no computation or examination which would enable him to say 

 specifically what proportion of the Northwest catch are the skins of the 

 female seal, but it is the fact that the great majority, deponent would 

 say 75 to 80 per cent, of the skins of this catch are the skins of the 

 female animal. The skins of the male seal and of the female seal may 

 be as readily distinguished as the skins of the different sexes of any 

 other animal. The skins of the female seal, for instance, show the 

 marks of the breast, and the fur upon the belly is thinner, and the 

 whole of the fur is also finer, lower in pile ; that is, the fibers compos- 

 ing the fur are shorter than in the case of the male seal. Another 

 means of distinguishing the female skins from the skins of the male 

 lies in the fact that the skins of the female are narrower at the head 

 and tail and are proportionately wider in the belly than the skins of 

 the male seal. Another means of distinguishing the seals of the North- 

 west catch from the skins of the Copper Island and Alaska catches 

 consists in the fact that nearly all the skins of this catch have holes in 

 them, which deponent understands is caused by the fact that the seals 

 from which they are taken have been shot or speared in the open sea, 

 and not, as is the case with the seals from which the skins of Copper 

 Island and Alaska catches are taken and killed, with clubs upon laud. 



