356 ALASKA INDUSTRIES 



if not in the form you desire, can be changed as you may indicate. Should yon wish, 

 several others similar and from other parties can no doubt be obtained. 



In fact, there will be no difficulty whatever in being able to prove by experts that 

 the sealing schooners are pursuing the business at a loss, and it seems outrageous 

 that they should persist in exterminating the herd without any pecuniary gain. The 

 only reason they continue in the business is that the vessels so engaged are not fit 

 for any other purpose, and further in the hope of an advance in the price of seals in 

 the London market, which can only take place if the seal catch on the Pribilof 

 Islands be reduced, but if on the contrary the same were increased it would so 

 demoralize the trade by reducing present prices to such an extent that financially 

 they would not be able to fit out another season, and this to some extent would solve 

 the problem and save the seal herd from entire destruction. 



It is now an acknowledged fact that sealing in the North Pacific is much more 

 unprofitable than in the Bering Sea, and would be abandoned entirely if the hunt- 

 ing could not be successfully continued into the Bering Sea, as the seals taken 

 therein have a much larger commercial value than those taken in the North Pacific, 

 which is accounted for by the same containing quite a number of young male seals, 

 such as are not taken on the Pribilof Islands, but allowed to go back into the water. 

 The skins of these young males, as stated above, are valued at very much more than 

 the skin of the cow seal, and if they (the young males) were taken on the islands 

 and not allowed to go back into the water to fall into the hands of the poachers, 

 their catches would be worth considerably less commercially, besides greatly reduc- 

 ing the quantity they could take. 



These facts are borne out by the sworn statements made of the percentage of male 

 skins contained in the Bering Sea catch of last year, which, I understand, numbered 

 about 15,000, and had the lessees been permitted to take these seals the Government 

 would have received a revenue on same and the sealers would have been so demoral- 

 ized that very few, if any, would have fitted out the present season. 



I trust I have not encroached upon your valuable time, and if I can be of any 

 assistance to you please command me. 

 Yours, truly, 



H. LIEBES. 



C. S. HAMLIN, Esq., 



Assistant Secretary, United States Treasury, 



Washington, D. C. 



ALEXANDER MCLEAN, being duly sworn, deposes and says : I have been engaged as 

 captain of sealing schooners for thirteen years last past, and for seven years com- 

 manded a British sealing schooner sailing from the port of Victoria, British Colum- 

 bia, and have, while so engaged, hunted for fur seals in the waters of the North 

 Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea; am thoroughly familiar with all the details as to the 

 cost of such sealing vessels, their outfits, and every e^fcense attached thereto. I am 

 also fully informed as to the prices fur-seal skins fwl for in the London market 

 each year, and that the price so realized the last two years, taking the average catch 

 per schooner for the same period of time, has left a loss to the vessel so engaged in 

 the sealing business, both American and British, and in consequence of the slaugh- 

 tering of the cow seals in the past years, I found during my last cruise to the North 

 Pacific and Bering Sea that the quantity of seals has been so greatly reduced that 

 the average catch per schooner will necessarily be considerable less the coining 

 season than in the past, so that it will not pay to continue the business, and for the 

 first time in thirteen years I shall not engage in the same the present season. 



ALEXANDER MCLEAN. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 21st day of February, A. D. 1896. 



[SEAL.] MARK LANE, Notary Public. 



A. P. LORENTZEN, being duly sworn, deposes and says: That he is secretary and 

 general manager of the Pacific Trading Company, a corporation existing under the 

 laws of the State of California; that said company is the owner of the American 

 schooners Bonanza, Edward E. Webster, Herman, and Alton; that said schooners were 

 engaged in the sealing business during the past two years, hunting fur seals in the 

 waters of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, and in the same locations visited 

 by both the American and British Columbia sealing fleets; that said schooners left 

 this port at the usual time and returned here with their cargoes at the end of each 

 season ; that they were engaged in the taking of fur seals during these respective 

 seasons, consisting of from eight to nine months each year; that the average catches 

 of said schooners for the past two years were more than the average catches per 

 schooner of the entire sealing fleet, both American and British, during the same 

 period ; that the catches of seals above referred to were shipped to London and sold 



