REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 173 



and its progress, and then on the defective methods, viewed as such, 

 which have been largely responsible for this result. 



670. Statements have been made to the effect that during the lease of 

 the Alaska Commercial Company, frauds were perpetrated in regard to 

 the number of skins taken on the islands and couuted for taxation. No 

 direct evidence of this seems to have been produced, but as the oihcial 

 counting of the skins both on the islands and in San Francisco was done 

 in bundles, each of which Avas sui)posed to consist of two skins, it is 

 obvious that but for observed dilference of size or weight, tliree or even 

 four skins might have been bundled and corded together and counted 

 as two. Speaking of the mode of enumerating the skins, Elliott says: 

 "The list of the Treasury Agent on the islands, when the skins are first 

 shipped [the shipment being made, as elsewhere stated, in bundles], is 

 the official indorsement of the Company's catch for the year; but when 

 the ship reaches San Francisco, these skins are all counted over anew 

 [but again in bundles] by another staff of Government Agents."* 



671. Keferring to the weiglit of the skins and bundles, he elsewhere 

 writes: "The average weiglit of a two-year-old skin is 5i lbs.; of a 

 three-year-old skin, 7 lbs.; and of a four-year-old skin, 12 lbs.; so that 

 as the major portion of the catch is two- or three-year-olds, these bundles 

 of two skins eacli have an average weight of from 12 to 15 lbs. In this 

 shape they go into the hold of the Company's steamer at St. Paul, and 

 are counted out from it at San Francisco. "t 



672. An independent observer, Lieutenant Mayiuird, in his report 

 written about the same time, says: "Finally, they are prepared for 

 shipment by rolling them into compact bundles, two skins each, which 

 are secured with stout lashings. The largest of these bundles weigh 

 64 lbs., but the average weight is but 22 lbs. The smallest skins, those 

 taken from seals two years old, weigh about 7 lbs. each, and the largest, 

 from seals six years old, about 30 lbs."| 



673. The weights given by Lieutenant Maynard for the skins of seals 

 of various ages are in error, but it would appear that in thus Avriting, 

 these weights had been deduced from that of the bundles which he had 

 seen, the weight of which certainly appears to require some explanation. 



(B.) — Decrease in Number of Seals^ its Origin and Progress. 



674. With regard to the first of these questions, that relating to the 

 decrease of seal life on the Pribyloft" Islands, what has already been 

 stated respecting the available estimates of number of seals at differ- 

 ent dates will have shown that it is hopeless to obtain any satisfactory 

 and connected idea of the state of the l)reeding islands from these 

 a-lone. It is, in fact, largely from collateral evidence, from facts inci- 

 dentally placed on record, of which the meaning now becomes plain, 

 from statements obtained by ourselves in response to personal inquiry 

 and other such sources, that a general history of the condition of the 

 Fribyloff" Islands may be built up. 



675. A gentleman long associated with the Company whose lease of 

 the Pribylott" Islands has lately terminated, exi)lained the matter 



117 to us in brief terms, by saying that this Company — "Had a good 



thing" in the lease: "They got the cream of the fur-seal business, 



and kept the decrease dark." Without in any way indorsing this 



statement, or attributing any such settled policy to the Company, it is 



* United States' Census Report, p. 169. 



t Ibid., p. 77. 



t House of Representatives, llth Congress, 1st Session, Ex. Doc. No. 43, p. 9. 



