SOURCES OF SUPPLY. 541 



number, and the numbers which since that year have arrived in the 

 London market are stated with substantial accuracy upon the lists an- 

 nexed to the affidavits of my partners, Messrs. Fraser & Teichniann. 



The skins which have come to the London market within the last few 

 years have been principally what are known as 



the Alaska catch, the Copper Island catch and Walter E. Martin, p. 569. 

 the Northwest catch. Small supplies are also ob- 

 tained from the Lobos Islands, Cape Horn, and Australasia, but the 

 skins got from last three mentioned localities play an inconsiderable 

 part in tlie business. That the great majority of the skins coming into 

 the market are known as the Alaska, the Copper Island, anil the 

 Northwest skins. 



That from about the year 1879 down to the present time the principal 

 fur-seal skins coming to the London market have 

 been what are known as the Alaska catch, being Henry Poland, p. 571. 

 the skins of fur-seals killed upon the Pribilof 



Islands, in the Bering Sea, the Copper Islands catch being the skins of 

 fur-seals killed upon the Kommandorski and Bobben Islands of Russia, 

 and what are known as the Northwest catch. Until within two or three 

 years ago a very considerable number of skins also arrived on the Lon- 

 don market, amounting, perhaps, to several thousand annually, which 

 were known as Japanese skins. 



That later on, from the year 1878, we have noticed in the London 

 market seal skins called Victoria or Northwest 

 coast skins, the quantity of which is variable, but Leon Re'villon, p. 589. 

 which has continually increased until last year, 

 when the total quantity was held at 80,000 skins. 



That we have often heard, and from different sources, that these last- 

 named skins [Victoria or Northwest coast skins] are in the majority the 

 skins of the female seal. The thinness of the hair upon the hanks seems 

 to confirm this assertion, although it is impossible for us to test the 

 absolute truth of this statement for ourselves, for when the seals have 

 been dressed the signs of the mammals disappear. At any rate the 

 employment of these skins is much less advantageous to our business 

 because there is a great predominance of small skins, which are evi- 

 dently those of young seals which are not killed by the companies which 

 have the concessions for the Alaska and Copper seal-skins. More- 

 over, these Victoria or Northwest coast seal-skins are riddled with shot, 

 which very materially depreciates their value, while the seals of both 

 the Alaska and Copper companies are killed by a blow of a club upon 

 the head, which does not at all impair the quality of the skin as regards 

 its ultimate uses. 



That the fact that the annual production of Victoria or Northwest 

 coast skins has increased in proportion as the Alaska skins has dimin- 

 ished seems to indicate that if fewer Northwest coast animals had been 

 killed the quantity of Alaska skins would not have diminished. 



That for many years last past the skins arriving in the market have 

 been principally what are known as, first, the 

 Alaska skins, which are the skins of seals killed Geo. Rice, p. 572. 

 upou the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea; sec- 

 ond, what are called the Copper Island skins, which are the skins of 

 seals killed on the Kussian islands in the Bering Sea; and third, what 



