102 FUR-SEAL HEED OF ALASKA. 



Mr. McGtLLicuDDY. Then it is your idea that measurement is reliable after a certain 

 number of days? 



Mr. Lembkey. Yes, after it has been in salt, but when the skin is green it would not 

 be a reliable test. (Hearing No. 9, pp. 399-400, Feb. 29, 1912, Ho. Com. Exp. Dept. 

 Com. and Lab.) 



Here the chief special agent of the Bureau of Fisheries in charge 

 of the seal islands distinctly tells the committee that when those 

 skins taken by him have been in salt "four or five days" they can not 

 be stretched or shrunken; that they are then fixed for a reliable 

 measurement, and so fixed when they leave the islands for the London 

 sales. 



Then, later on, this chief special agent m charge of the seal islands, 

 when asked by the committee to give his measurements made by 

 himself of a yearling seal of his own identification as such, he swears 

 (on pp. 442, 443) as follows (Hearing No. 9.): 



Mr. Lembkey. Now, Mr. Elliott, proceed. 



Mr. Elliott. Mr. Lembkey, do you know the length of a yearling .seal from its 

 nose to the tip of its tail? 



Mr. Lembkey. No. sir, not off-hand. 



Mr. Elliott. You never measured one? 



Mr. Lembkey. Oh. yes, I have measured one. 



Mr. Elliott. Have you no record of it? 



Mr. Lembkey. 1 have a record of it here. 



Mr. Elliott. What is its length? 



Mr. Lembkey. The length of a yearling seal on the animal would be. from the tip 

 of the nose to the root of the tail. 39^ inches in one instance and J9h in another instance 



Mr. Elliott. Yes. 



Mr. Lembkey. And 4^ '" another instance. I measured only three. 



Mr. Elliott. When you take a skin off of that yearling seal, how much of that shin do 

 yon leave on there? 



Mr. Lembkey. You do not leave very much on the tail end there [indicating]; not 

 nearly so much as your sketch would show. 



Mr. Elliott. It does not matter. 



Mr. Lembkey. We leave about 3 inches, perhaps, on the head. 



Mr. Elliott. How much can you say is left on a yearling after you have taken the 

 skin off? 



The Chairman. How much skin is left after you have taken it off? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes, sir ; after they remove it for commercial purposes a certain amount 

 is left on. 



Mr. Lembkey. / stated about S inches. 



Mr. Elliott. Then that would leave a yearling sl'in to be 35 inches long. 



Mr. Lembkey. No; if it was 39^ inches long it would leave it 36^ inches. That is, all 

 the animal from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail would be 39i inches long. 

 Three inches off that would leave 36i inches. 



In this distinct and explicit statement, Mr. LembJcey tells the com- 

 mittee that a yearling seal skin of his own identification and measure- 

 ment is S6\ inches long, and that its m.easurement as such is fixed 

 and constant after "four or five days in salt." 



On page 447, he admits to the committee that the official classifi- 

 cation of his catch of 12,920 seal skins taken by him in 1910 and 

 measured in salt carries 7,733 skins which are less than 34 inches 

 long (or are yearling skins), any one of them, as follows: 



Mr. Elliott. I am getting at ths analysis of your catch which you have given here 

 already. You have given in a statement here that 8,000 of them were "small" and 

 "extra small." 



Mr. Lembkey. 7,700. 



Mr. Elliott. 7,700? 



Mr. Lembkey. 7,733 were small and extra small pups. 



Mr. Elliott. Mr. Eraser tells us that those seals none of them measured more than 

 34 inches nor less than 30 inches. 



