270 THE SEALSKIN INDUSTRY. 



Loss to United C. M. Laiiipsoii & Compaiiy, in a letter to the 

 British Foreign Office dated December 30, 1890, 

 state: "For many years past no less than 75 per 

 cent have been bought for American account and 

 reshipped to the United States after having been 

 manufactured in London."^ This statement is 

 corroborated by seven of the principal fur mer- 

 chants in the United States, who place the number 

 of "Alaskas" imported atirom 65,000 to 75,000.' 

 The value of these skins before paying custom 

 duty to the United States is shown to average 

 for a series of years about $25 per skin.' On 

 these importations the Government of the United 

 States received a duty of 20 per cent advalorem, 

 or an annual revenue from duties on dressed and 

 dyed Alaskan skins amounting to the sum of 

 $375,000, which makes the total annuity of the 

 United States Grovernment, derived from the 

 Alaskan seal herd, at least $1,375,000, provided 

 the usual quota of skins are taken by the lessees 

 of the Pribilof Islands. In the United States 

 these imported dressed and dyed skins are re- 

 modeled and manufactured into seal-skin articles, 

 for which the people so employed receive on an 

 average $7 a skin, or for the 70,000 skins so 



1 British Blue Book, U. S. No. 1 (1891), C-6253, p. 11. 

 *Sta,teiuent of Ainoricau iudustry by furriers, VoL 11, p. 526. 



