FUR-SEAL HERD OF ALASKA. 



229 



Under cross - oxamination, 

 Lembkey admits that a yearlino; 

 sealskin" of his own identification 

 and measurement is 36^ inches 

 long. 



Mr. Lembkey. Briefly, Mr. Elliott has 

 accused those charged with the manage- 

 ment of the seal fisheries with malfeasance 

 in office in that — 



1. They have allowed the killing of 

 thousands of yearling seals. 



Mr. Elliott. I am coming to that. I 

 want to get it distinctly in the record that 

 this man knew exactly what he was doing 

 all along. 



It became necessary, then, for the com- 

 mittee to get from Mr. Lembkey his own 

 identification and measurement of a 

 yearling seal and its skin. To this end 

 he was examined, and he testified as fol- 

 lows — you will see the point, because he 

 has testified that he did not kill anything 

 "under 2 years old," because the regula- 

 tiors forbid it. He testified as follows, on 

 page 442, Hearing No. 9: 



"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 offhand. 



"Mr. Elliott. You never measured 

 one? 



"Mr. Lembkey. Oh, yes; I have meas- 

 ured one. 



"Mr. Elliott. Have you no record of 



it? 



"Mr. Lembkey. I have a record of it 



here. 



"Mr. Elliott. What is its length? 



"Mr. Lembkey. The length of a year- 

 ling seal on the animal would be from the 

 tip of the nose to the root of the tail, 39^ 

 inches in one instance and 39^ in another 

 instance 



"Mr. Elliott. Yes. 



"Mr. Lembkey. And 41 in another in- 

 stance. I measured only three.'' 

 * * * * 



Also on page 443 : 



"Mr. Elliott. How much can you say 

 is left on a yearling after you have taken 

 the skin off? 



"The Chairm.\n. How much skin is 

 left after you have taken it off? 



"Mr. Elliott. Yes, sir; after they re- 

 move it for commercial purposes a certain 

 amount is left on. 



"Mr. Lembkey. I stated about 3 inches. 



"Mr. Elliott. Then that would leave a 

 yearling skin to be 35 inches long. 



' ' Mr .I.EM B key. No ; if it was 39^ inches 

 long, it would leave it 3*)^ inches. That 

 is, all the animal from the tip of the nose 

 to the root of the tail would be 39^ inches 

 long. Three inches off that would leave 

 36^ inches." 



Lembkey then admits that an 

 accurate measurement of the 

 12,920 skins he took in 1910, de- 

 clare the fact that 7,733 of them 

 are only 34 inches long 



Mr. Elliott. Mr. Lembkey having 

 thus identified "7,733" of his 12,920 skins 

 as "small pups" and "extra small pups," 

 the committee then examined him as to 

 the lengths of those "small pup" and 

 "extra small pup " skins; he then testified 

 as follows, page 443 , Hearing No. 9 : 



"Mr. Elliott. I am getting at the 

 analysis of your catch which you have 

 given here already. You have given in 

 a statement here that 8,000 of them were 

 ••smaH" and "extra sm^ll." 



"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. 



"Mr. Lembkey. The committee can 

 see what Mr. Eraser states. Mr. Eraser 

 states that small pups measured 33| 

 inches in length." 



The Chairman. \\Taat would that indi- 

 cate as to age? 



Mr. Elliott. I am coming to that — 



"Mr. Elliott. From there [indicating! 

 to there [indicating] on that diagram 



"Mr. Lembkey. 33| inches m length, 

 and extra small pups measured 30 inches 

 in length. 



"Mr. Elliott. Then you have some 

 extra small pups there which makes it 

 8,000? 



"Mr. Lembkey. Only 11 of those. 



"Mr. Elliott. It does not amount to 

 anything. 



"Mr. Lembkey. It just makes your 

 8,000 about 300 more than the actual 

 number. 



"Mr. Elliott. That is the reason I 

 used those round numbers. It does not 

 amount to anything one way or the other. 



"Mr. Lembkey. The actual number is 

 300 short of 8,000, Mr. Elliott." 



Mr. Lembkey thus testifies that his own 

 summary and official record of the meas- 

 urements of "7,733 fur sealskins," which 

 he took during the season of 1910 on the 

 Pribilof Islands, declares the fact that no 

 one of them exceeds in length 34 inches. 

 That fact determines them— all of theni— 

 to have been the skins taken from yearling 

 seals. (Hearing No. 14, pp. 903, 904, 905, 

 Julv25, 1912.) 



