2G8 THE SEALSKIN INDUSTRY. 



Sources of sup- The principal sources of supply for s(;al skins 

 at the present time are, first, the Pribilof Islands ; 

 second, the Commander Islands ; third, the North- 

 west or Victoria catch.^ A small supply is also 

 received from Lobos Islands, Cape Horn, the 

 Falklands,^ and Australasia.^ 



Dependence on r^^^^ ^ablcs attached to the affidavit of Mr. 



Alaskan nerd. 



Emil Teichmann, of the firm of C. M. Lampson 

 & Company, show that the Pribilof Islands have, 

 since their lease to the Alaska Commercial Com- 

 pany, and until the year 1890, supplied on an aver- 

 age over one-half of the skins sold annually in 

 London ; that, including the Northwest catch, the 

 Alaskan herd has produced over sixty per cent 

 of the world's supply, and that the two great 

 herds of the North Pacific and Bering Sea, 

 which are both threatened with extermination by 

 pelagic sealing, are the source of over eighty 

 per cent of the skins annually offered for sale at 

 London. In 1889, the last year in which one 

 hundred thousand seals were taken on the Prib- 

 ilof Islands, tlie number of skins derived from 

 these two herds was ninety-four per cent of the 

 whole supply, not twelve thousand skins being 

 obtained from other sources.^ From the fore- 

 going it is evident that the destruction of the 



' Eniil Teichmann, Vol. II, p. 579. 

 2H. S. Bevington, Vol. II, p. 551. 

 3 Emil Teichinaun, Vol. II, p. 578. 

 * Emil Teicbmaun, Vol. II, p. 585. 



