38 



Appendix. 



Communication from Messrs. C. M. Lampson as to the market prices of salted fur. 

 seal skins, 1886-96. 



Dear Sir, 64, Queen Street, E.G., London, January 30, 1897. 



We are in receipt of your favour of yesterday's date, and in reply beg now to inclose 

 statement showing the yearly catches of the different kinds of fur-seals sold by public auction 

 in London since 1886. 



You will notice that prices advanced very greatly in 1890, when the take of the Alaskas- 

 was suddenly reduced to about one-fifth of the usual quantity. Prices generally kept at a 

 high figure 'during the years 1891-92, and they showed a decline as soon as the largely 

 increased quantity of the north west coast catch began to tell. Since then there has been 

 an almost uninterrupted decline in the leading sorts until the present time. 



In explaining our classification, we beg to state again that 



Alaskas comprise the male seals taken by the North American Commercial Company 

 on the Pribyloff Islands ; 



Coppers, the males taken by the Russian Seal-skin Company on the Siberian Islands ; 



North - west Coast, those taken by the pelagic sealers off the west coast of North 

 America from San Francisco to the Aleutian Islands, along the coast of Japan, in the 

 neighbourhood of the Siberian Islands and in the Behring Sea ; 



Lobos, the skins taken by a Uruguayan Company on the Lobos Islands, off Monte 

 Video ; 



South Sea, skins taken in the Antarctic Ocean. 



Besides the seals enumerated above, about 3,000 skins per annum are taken off Cape 

 Horn, about 1,000 skins per annum in Australasian waters, and about 2,000 skins per annum 

 off the Cape of Good Hope, all these being of comparatively little value. 



We shall at all times be happy to furnish you with any information that is in our 

 power to give. 



Yours truly, 



(Signed) C. M. LAMPSON AND Co. 



Professor D'Arcy W. Thompson, 



University College, Dundee. 



STATEMENT of Gross Average Prices obtained for Salted Pur-seal Skins. 



