PELAGIC SEALING A SPECULATION. 



591 



Statistics of prices. 



•Recent increase in price. 



I have signed the name of Joseph Ullinann to the statement hereto 

 annexed, which has been prepared from a careful examination of the 

 books of the house of said Joseph Ullmann in the city of New York, 

 and I know said statement to be correct and true in every respect. 

 All of the seal skins therein referred to are of the 



class known as Northwest Coast skins. In this Samuel Ullmann, p. 532. 

 term I mean to comprise all skins taken in the 



Pacific Ocean or in the waters of Bering Sea. The skins in question 

 were purchased at Victoria, British Columbia, with the exception of 

 499, which were purchased in August, 1899, at San Francisco. Said 

 books show the following assortment of portions of these skins, respect- 

 ively, 1,835 and 1,070 in number, bought in May and June, 1888, together 

 with the prices paid for each grade per skin : 



May, 1SSS. 



885 Bering Sea seals $4. 57 



' 551 West Coast seals 5. 00 



I < 102 West Coast gray pups 1. 25 



2 West Coast pups 2. 50 



252 West Coast seals 5, 00 



II { 41 West Coast gray pups 1 . 00 



2 West Coast pups 2. 50 



June. 18S8. 



985 seal skins 4. 80 



18 seal sl< ins 6. 00 



100 gray pups 1. 25 



The skins marked I formed one lot and represented the catch of a 

 single vessel. The same is true of the skins marked II. The percent- 

 age of gray pups contained in each of these lots, both of which were 

 bought on assortment, is not an unusual one. 



The house of Joseph Ullmann has, of late years, been one of the larg- 

 est single buyers of seal skins at Victoria, and my 



knowledge and experience enable me to state that Saml. Ullmann, p. 533. 

 the prices paid by this house, as contained in the 



annexed statement, represent fairly the value of such skins at Victoria 

 in each of the past five years. 



The rapid rise in the price paid for these skins in the years 1890 and 

 1891 can only be explained through the sudden decrease, which in the 

 years 1890 and 1891 took place in the annual catch on the Pribilof 

 Islands. As soon as it became known in the latter part of the summer 

 of 1890 that only about 21,000 skins had been taken that year on the 

 Pribilof Islands, the price of skins rose rapidly at Victoria; and refer- 

 ence to the annexed statement will show that while in June we had 

 bought at less than $7 a skin ? in September of the same year we pur- 



