FUR-SEAL HEED OP ALASKA. 7 



and their "green" weights recorded then by him before salting on 

 that day. 



We took this Ust of tagged skins and numbers, and measured them 

 for their sizes, and then reweighed them in the salt. It became clear, 

 as this work progressed, that the small 31-34 inch skins were so 

 "loaded" with blubber that they actually weighed as much as the 

 large 40-43 inch skins, which were not loaded — never loaded; so 

 that without these measurement checks upon them, those little 

 yearUng skins (30-34 inch skins) — appeared in this list of ''green" 

 weights as well as or as heavy as the large, or 40-43 inch skins. 



This accounts for the fierce insistence of the officials of the Bureau 

 of Fisheries that their 6-pound and 7-pound skin weights were proof 

 of the fact that they were not "yearlings" — were "2-year-old" seals. 

 This insistence they kept up until it was at last extorted from 

 them that the measin*ement of the skin alone declared its real size 

 or age. On page 446, Hearing No. 9, April 13, 1912, House Com- 

 mittee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce and Labor, 

 the following sworn statement is made by Mr. Lembkey, who is the 

 same man that ordered and directed the killing and skinning of these 

 400 seals on July 7 last, which we handled July 29 following: 



Mr. Elliott. Mr. Lembkey. you say you never have weighed these skins after you 

 have salted them? You have never weighed them? 



Mr. Lembkey. I have never weighed them after the salting on the islands; no, six. 



Mr. Elliott. Have you ever issued any orders or heard any orders issued to have 

 more or less blubber taken? 



Mr. Lembkey. Never. 



Mr. Elliott. Is it not true that a native can skin a 4-|-pound skin off and add bluh-. 

 ber to it so as to make it weight 5 pounds? 



Mr. Lembkey. It certainly is.' 



Mr. Elliott. Would it destroy the value of that skin if he did? 



Mr. Lembkey. Not in the least, except that it would require longer to salt. 



Mr. Elliott. And it would absorb more salt, would it not? 



Mr. Lembkey. I think so: yes. 



Mr. Elliott. And that would add very much to the weight of the -U-pound skin? 



Mr. Lembkey. Yes; the blubber would. 



Mr. Elliott. All that can be done, can it not? 



Mr. Lembkey. I might state here, while you are on that point, that it would not 

 alter, except in perhaps a very slight degree, the classification of that skin when it 

 was received in London by the factors. 



Mr. Elliott. Certainly. 



Mr. Lembkey. You might make a yearling skin weigh 9 pounds by the adding of 

 blubber,- yet when it got to London it would be only so long and so wide. 



Mr. Elliott. That is it. 



Mr. Lembkey. And of course it would develop in the classification when the skins 

 would be exposed for sale. 



Here Mr. Lembkey (who has directed all of the island killing of 

 seals for the lessees since 1899, and up to date of July 7, 1913) tells 

 the committee that he has never issued any orders to have more or 

 less blubber taken, yet here are 400 skins under our eyes which were 

 all taken under his personal direction, July 7 last (1913), and nearly 

 every small skin is "loaded" with blubber so heavily that it weighs 

 as much as the larger skins, which, in turn, are all "clean skinned," 

 and so weigh near to their real size.^ 



( 1 See native sealers' statements that they were told to leave blubber on these "small " skins. (Exhibit E, 

 \postea.) 



■< 2 See native sealers' statements, who say they were ordered to leave this extra blubber on "small" skins 

 lin 1896, and have done so up to date. (Exhibit E, postea.) 



