10 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



A cut skin is one that has been bitten through by one seal biting 

 another during one of their many battles, or it may have been acci- 

 dentally cut during the operation of skinning; a small skin is one that 

 weighs a little less than the minimum standard set up by the lessee's 

 agent, generally less than 6 pounds. After July the fur seal sheds his 

 hair, and it is during the shedding season, when the old hair is falling 

 out and before the new hair has attained its full growth, that the skin 

 is said to be stagy. 



The fur of a stagy skin is just as good as any other; but the half- 

 grown new hair, being shorter than the fur. can not be plucked out by 

 hand or by machinery, and is therefore considered a blemish on the 

 skin, in consequence of which its price and value are naturally lowered 

 in the market. 



Heretofore, and until the adoption of the modus vivendi in 1891, it 

 was customary to allow the natives to kill seals for food at any and all 

 times when they were to be found on the islands. And it was in this 

 way, and in this way only, that stagy skins were ever taken and wasted, 

 because all skins that are rejected by the lessee's agent are wasted so 

 far as Government interests and revenue are concerned. 



No killing should be permitted for any purpose whatsoever during 

 the stagy season, say from July 31 to November 15. 



After a thorough inspection, the skins are counted one by one in 

 presence of the Treasury agent, who makes a record of the same in a 

 book kept for that purpose, and in which he also enters the date of the 

 drive, the rookery driven from, the hour of driving, the state of the 

 weather, the number of seals killed, the number of skins accepted, 

 the number rejected, and the cause of such rejection. 



The accepted skins are then salted by the natives in presence and 

 under the direction of the native chief and the lessee's agent. The 

 skins are spread on the floor, hair side down, and covered with a layer 

 of coarse salt: again a layer of skins is laid on and covered with salt 

 as before, and the operation is repeated until all are salted. 



After lying for at least five days in the first salt they are shaken out 

 and examined, and resalted as before, excepting that the top layer is 

 now put down first and the original position of all layers reversed. 



When sufficiently cured they are bundled by the natives, who, spread- 

 ing a thin layer of salt between two skins, lay them flesh side to flesh 

 side, and fold the two into a neat, compact bundle, which they tie 

 securely with strong twine, and throw into the pile for shipping. From 

 the shipping pile they are again counted out, bundle by bundle, by the 

 Treasury agent, in whose presence they are always taken from the salt 

 house to the boat, from which they are again counted by the mate into 

 the steamer that takes them to San Francisco, where they are counted 

 once more by the customs officers, and finally packed into barrels by 

 the lessees and shipped direct to London via New York. 



Early in the morning of August 4, 1894, a drive was made from the 

 Reef rookery in presence of Mr. Hamlin, who accompanied the native 

 men who did the work, and who was present throughout the whole oper- 

 ation of driving, killing, and skinning the seals, inspecting, assorting, 

 counting, and salting the skins, just as the same operations have been 

 performed every killing season for the past quarter of a century. 1 



1 The only exception to this is in the method of killing. The olden rule was to 

 allow each man to first knock down his share and then tarn in and skin them, but 

 experience taught us that this was bad policy, for the carcasses that were allowed to 

 cool and stiffen before skinning were very apt to have their skins injured in the 

 operation, hence the adoption of the present improved system. 



