THE FUR SEAL INDUSTRY ON ALASKA. 371 



SHIPMENT OF SEAL SKINS TO LONDON. As I have said before, all of the fur-seal catch oil 

 Saint Paul and Saint George, and the Eussiau Islands to the westward, is shipped by the Alaska 

 Commercial Company directly to London every season, aud there offered for sale iu the great fur 

 warehouses of that metropolis, where fur buyers, ever since the palmy days of the Hudson Bay Com- 

 pany when it controlled the fur market of the world, have been accustomed to repair twice a year for 

 the purpose of bidding in everything known to the trade that was collected over the whole world 

 and considered of commercial importance. 



9. ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE SKINS, OIL, AND FLESH OF THE FUR-SEAL. 



REASON WHY FUR-SEAL-SKINS ABE ALL SOLD IN LONDON. On account of the fact that the 

 labor in this country, especially skilled labor, commands so much more per diem in the return of 

 wages than it does in London or Belgium, it is not practicable for the Alaska Commercial Com- 

 pany, or any other company, to attempt to dress and put upon the market the catch of Bering Sea, 

 which is almost the eutire catch of the whole world. Our people understand the theory of dress- 

 ing these skins perfectly, but they cannot compete with the cheaper labor of the Old World. 

 Therefore, nine-tenths nearly of the fur-seal skins taken every year are annually purchased and 

 dressed in London, aud from thence distributed all over the civilized world where furs are worn 

 aud prized. 



CAUSE OF VARYING PRICES OF DRESSED SEAL SKINS. The great variations of the value of 

 seal skin sacques, ranging from $75 up to $350, and even $500, is not often due to the variance in 

 the quality of the fur originally, but it is due to the quality of the work whereby the fur was 

 treated and prepared for wear. For instance, the cheap sacques are so defectively dyed that a 

 little moisture causes them to soil the collars and cuffs of their owners, and a little exposure causes, 

 them speedily to fade and look ragged. A properly dyed skin, one that has been conscientiously 

 and laboriously finished, for it is a labor requiring great patience and great skill, will not rub off or 

 " crock" the whitest linen when moistened ; and it will wear the weather, as I have myself seen it 

 on the form of a sea captain's wife, for six and seven successive seasons, without showing the least 

 bit of dimness or raggedness. I speak of dyeing alone ; I might say the earlier steps of unhairing, 

 in which the over hair is deftly combed out and off from the skin, heated to such a point that *be 

 roots of the fur are not loosened, while those to the coarser hirsute growth are. If this is not 

 done with perfect uniformity, the fur will never lay smooth, no matter how skillfully dyed ; it will 

 always have a rumpled, ruffled look. Therefore the hastily dyed sacques are cheap, and are 

 enhanced in order of value just as the labor of dyeing is expended upon them. 



GRADATION OF THE FUR OF CALLORHINUS URSINUS. The gradation of the fur of Callo- 

 rliinus may, perhaps, be best presented in the following manner: 



1 YEAR OLD $ : WELL GROWN : at July 1 of every season : 



FUR fully developed an to uniform length and thickness and evenness of distribution ; it is lighter in color, and 

 softer in texture, than hereafter, during the life of the aniuial ; average weight of skin, as removed by the sealers 

 from the carcass, 4J pounds. 



2 YEAR OLD $ : WELL GROWN : at June 1 of every season : 



FUR fully developed as to even length and thickness and uniformity of distribution; it has now attained the 

 darker buff and fawn color, sometimes almost brown, which it retains throughout the rest of the life of the 

 animal; it is slightly and perceptibly firmer and stiffer than it was last year, iiot being at all "fluffy" as in the 

 yearling dress now ; average weight of skin, as taken from the body, 5^ pounds. 



3 YEAR OLD : WELL GROWN : at June 1 of every season : 



FUR fully developed, as to even length, but a shade longer over the shoulders, where the incipient "wig" is 

 forming ; otherwise perfectly uniform in thickness and even distribution ; this is the very best grade of pelt which 

 the seal affords during its life ; average weight of skin, as taken from the body, 7 pounds. 



