28 



FUR-SEAL HERD OF ALASKA. 



III. On page 150 of this ])iiblication is the following table of the 

 measurements and weights of fur seals, one, two, three, four, five, and 

 six years old, and of their skins when removed from their bodies: 



Table showing the weight, size, and growth of the fur seal {Callorhvnus ursinus), from the 

 pup to the adult, male and female. 



On May 31, 1911, Mr, Henry W. Elliott made the following sworn 

 statement to the House Committee on Expenditures in the Department 

 of Commerce and Labor (Hearing No. 1, pp. 12, 13, House Com. Exp. 

 Dept. Com. & Labor), to wit (Secretary Nagel was present) : 



Mr. Elliott. I want the committee to understand the part which was taken by 

 the lessees in 1872, with the Treasury agents, of whom I was one, in fixing an official 

 standard whereby we could recognize every seal officially reported to the Treasury 

 Department as it was sold in London, because the London classifications were dif- 

 ferent from ours as to phraseology. 



The London people knew nothing and still know nothing about the age of seals, 

 and they cared nothing about it. They were interested in the size and the quality. 

 They ascertained and formed their idea of the skin's value primarily by its measure- 

 ment, and, secondly, by its weight. The weight would vary. Sometimes more 

 salt and blubber are used, and sometimes less. But the measurements were reason- 

 ably steady and constant. They measure their sealskins. We weighed ours on the 

 islands. To reconcile those differences, it became very important in 1872 to know 

 exactly what we were doing on the islands, so that we would understand exactly what 

 they were doing in London when the> sold them. I want the committee to fix this 

 in tlieir minds, because the whole thing turns on this proposition. I said to tlie 

 superintendent, ''Why do you kill all those big seals? Do they ask you to kill all 

 the big seals and let all these smaller seals go? Why don't you take them all? " He 

 said, "They do not want them. They want those large, seals. The>^ call them 'mid- 

 dlings' and 'smalls,' etc." Then I said, '"('an we not have some arrangement made 

 whereby we can avoid this culling of the herd? Don't you see. Dr. Mclntyre, in a short 

 time, if this is kept up, that no good male seal will ever get past yotu- firing line to 

 go onto the breeding rookeries?" He said, "Oh, yes. Brother Elliott, but just look 

 at them out there^millions of them. You do not need to worry about that." 



Well, I admitted that there was no need to worry then, but I said to my associ- 

 ates: "Gentlemen, we have got to have some understanding when we officially report 

 to our Government what the grades of these seals are which the lessees are killing, 

 80 we can trace the record of their work from the islands to London and back again. 

 Let us get together now and form a complete agreement as to what constitutes the 

 skin of a 'yearling' seal, the skin of a '2-year-old,' and a '3-year-old.' and a '4-year- 

 old, a '5-year-old,' and so on." We worked over that thing through the whole sea- 

 son of 1872. That was something that these men took hold of with a great deal of 

 pleasure. We renewed this discussion, comparison, and study on the skin weights, 

 ages, etc., of the seals in 1873. Mr. Mclntyre went to London and got the weights 

 and measurements of a set of skins, which he took over as samples, of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 

 5 year olds. He brought them back to us with the stamp on them as "small pups," 

 and so on. So there was no doubt of what we were doing. Officially, we had no 



