418 RESULTS. 



great number in Northwest Coast skins. In the case of a shot hole it 

 is always evident that the surrounding fur has been abruptly cut off, 

 while around the edge of a teat hole the fur gradually shortens as it 

 reaches the edge and naturally ceases to grow at the edge. 



I have just looked over an original case of ninety dressed and dyed 

 Northwest Coast fur-seal skins, which have been lately received from 

 London, and were still under seals placed on them in London. I found 

 that of these ninety skins nine only were those of male animals. 



Deponent further says that the skins of the Northwest catch are 

 almost entirely the skins of females. That the 



C A. Williams, j). 537. skins of males and ttie skins of females may be 

 as readily distinguished from each other as the 

 skins of the different sexes of any other animals, when seen before 

 being dyed and dressed, and that the reason why the skins of this 

 catch are almost exclusively females is that the male seal is much more 

 active and much more able to escape from the boats engaged in this 

 manner of hunting than the female seal, and that a large number of 

 the female seals included in the Northwest catch are of animals heavy 

 with young. A large number of females are also caught on their way 

 from and to the Pribilof Islands and their feeding grounds before and 

 after the delivery of their young on those islands. 



A statement is attached hereto, prepared by deponent, giving his 

 estimate of the number of female seals killed by 

 c*. A. Williams, p. 540. p e i a g[ c hunting in the past twenty-one years. 



That for the last fifteen years he has had consigned to him by fur 

 dealers from 8,000 to 10,000 sealskins annualy, for the purpose of dress- 

 ing and dyeing the same; that about 50 per cent 



Jos. D.Williavis, p. 548. of the skins so received by him came from London 

 in casks marked as they are catalogued by C. M. 

 Lampson & Co., and are the skins belonging to what is known as the 

 "Northwest catch;" and deponent is informed and believes that the 

 Northwest catch, as the term is used in the trade, means the skins of 

 seals caught in the open sea and not upon the islands. Another reason 

 for this belief is the fact that all of the skins of the Northwest catch 

 contain marks showing that the animal has been killed by bullets or 

 buckshot, the skins being pierced by the shot, whereas the skins killed 

 on the American and Eussian islands are killed on land by clubs and 

 are not pierced. 



That of the skins of the Northwest catch coming into his hands for 

 treatment probably all are the skins of the female seal, and that the 

 same can be distinguished from the skins of the male seal by reason of 

 the breasts and of the thinness of the fur around the same and upon 

 the belly, most of the female seals being killed while they are bearing 

 their young, and the fur therefore being stretched and thinner over 

 that part of the body; and also for the further reason that the head 

 of the female seal is much narrower than that of the male seal, 

 and that this point of difference is obvious in the skins of the two 

 classes. That of the total number of the skins received by him about 

 25 per cent are the skins of the "Alaska" and "Copper" catch. That 

 all the skins of the "Alaska" catch are male seals, and an overwhelming 

 proportion of the "Copper" catch are likewise male skins. That the 

 remainder of the skins sent to deponent for dressing and dyeing, as 

 aforesaid, are received by him through the house of Herman Liebes & 



