SEAL LIFI-; ON THK P1J1I5ILOF ISLANDS. 245 



years old it begins to have a mane, and for this reason it is after that 

 age called a wig. Finally, it is generally possible for me to tell the 

 skins of the two sexes apart by just taking a look at them or feeling 

 them. 1 suppose 1 can do this because I have been at the business so 

 long that 1 am an expert in it. 



The chief classes of seal skins that I have handled are the Alaska, 

 the Northwest coast, and the Copper Island skins. I can always dis- 

 tinguish the skins of these classes. The Northwest Coast skins are 

 most easily told by the very great proportion of females contained in 

 any given lot. Among the Alaska and Copper skins I have hardly ever 

 seen a female skin. (John ,J. Phelan.) 



I was sent to New York from Albany a few days ago by Mr. George 

 II. Tread well, with instructions to go through a certain lot of seal skins 

 which, I understand, he had recently bought in Victoria, and to find 

 out how many of these skins were taken from female animals. I have 

 spent four days in doing this, working about seven hours a day. 



There were several men who unpacked the skins and laid them before 

 me. so that all of my time was spent in examining the individual skins. 

 The lot contained :>,.~>50 skins. I found that, with the possible excep- 

 tion of two dried ones, they were taken from the animal this year; 

 they were, a part of what is known as the spring catch. [ know this 

 to be the case by the fresh appearance of the blubber and of the skin 

 as a whole. This affords a sine way of telling whether the skin has 

 lain in salt all winter or whether it has been recently salted. I per- 

 sonally inspected each one of these skins by itself and kept an accu- 

 rate record of the result. I divided the skins according to the three 

 following classes: .Males, females, and pups. In the class of pups I 

 placed oidy the skins of animals less than 2 years of age, but without 

 reference to sex. 



I found in the lot 3 < .),"> males, 2,107 females, and OSS pups. Leaving 

 out of account the pups, the percentage of females was therefore about 

 82. The great majority of what 1 classed as male skins were taken 

 from animals less than ."> years of age. There was not a single wig in 

 the lot. On the other hand, nearly all the female skins were those of 

 full grown animals. On every skin which I classed among the females 

 1 found teats, with bare spots about them on the fur side. Such bare 

 spots make it absolutely certain that these teats were those of female 

 skins. 



With regard to the pup skins. I will say that I did not undertake to 

 determine whether they were males or females, because they had a 

 thick coat of blubber which, in the case of an animal less than* 2 years 

 old, makes it very hard to tell the sex. 



All of the skins that I examined were either shot or speared. I did 

 not keep a close count, but I am of the opinion that about 75 per cent 

 of them were shot. 



The result of the examination is about what I expected it would be. 



The ligures only confirm what I have always noticed in a general 

 way. that nearly nine-tenths of the skins in any shipment of Northwest 

 coast skins are those of female animals. (John J. Phelan.) 



Examination of ratch of vessel* seized. 



About seven years since I was on the revenue cutter Concin when 

 she seized the sealing schooner San Dict/o in Bering Sea. On the / 

 schooner's deck were found the bodies of some 20 seals that had recently 

 been killed. An examination of the bodies disclosed that all of them, 



