98 ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUR INDUSTRIES IN 1915. 
A number of the branded seals were observed in 1913. In 1914 
they were observed in large numbers. In 1915 they appeared in such 
numbers as to indicate a lower mortality in the first three years of 
the fur seal’s life than has been ordinarily assumed. 
In 1913, 3 of the branded seals were killed on St. George Taw 
In 1914, 17 were killed on St. Paul Island and 1 on St. George Island. 
In 1915, through August 10, 53 were killed on St. Paul Island and 49 
on St. George Island. 
With the exception of the one 2-year-old taken on St. George Island 
in 1914 and one 3-year-old, an albino, taken on the same island in 
1915, all the skins taken from branded seals killed in 1914 and in 1915 
through August 10 were shipped to St. Louis. The 1914 St. George 
skin is still on that island, and the albino skin was sent to Washington. 
In December, 1915, H. C. Fassett and G. Dallas Hanna were sent 
to St. Louis to obtain certain data in regard to these skins. Upon 
their arrival in St. Louis it was found that a cask containing 40 of 
the branded skins taken in 1915 on St. Paul Island had already been 
partly processed for the purpose of dyeing them and that certain data 
could not therefore be obtained. Fortunately, however, the skins 
had been graded as small pups, middling pups, etc., in accordance 
with the regular trade classifications, and this grading is of special 
value in view of the fact that it was done without any knowledge of 
its desirability or importance and was therefore carried on in an 
entirely perfunctory manner and on an exceptionally unbiased basis. 
The following table shows in concise form certain data secured at 
the Pribilof Islands and at St. Louis in regard to this subject 
