REPORT OF AMERICAN COMMISSIONERS. 367 



a matter of fact, tliere is sufficient evidence to , Percent a, <;e of 



females in catcii. 



convince ns that by far the greater part of the 

 seals taken at sea are females; indeed, we have 

 yet to meet with any evidence to the contrary. 

 The statements of those who have had occasion 

 to examine the catch of pelagic sealers might be 

 quoted to almost any extent to the effect that at 

 least eighty percent of the seals thus taken are 

 females. On one occasion we examined a pile 

 of skins picked out at random, and which we 

 have every reason to believe was a part of a 

 pelagic catch, and found them nearly all females. 

 When the sealers themselves are not influenced 

 by the feeling that they are testifying against 

 their own interests they give similar testimony. 

 The master of the sealing schooner J. G. Stvan 

 declared that in the catch of 1890, when he 

 secured several hundred seals, the proportion of 

 females to males was about four to one, and on 

 one occasion in a lot of sixty seals, as a matter 

 of curiosity he counted the number of females 

 with young, finding forty-seven. 



Evidence on this point might be extended 

 indefinitely, but one or two additional references 

 will be valuable. The following is from Messrs. Letter of c. m. 



Lamjjson &, Co. 



C. M. Lampson & Co., of London, the most exten- 

 sive dealers in furs in the world, and everywhere 



