336 APPRAISEMENTS OF SEALING VESSELS. 



To the 



Honorable District Court of the District of Alaska : 



The undersigned appraisers appointed by your honorable court, and 

 sworn to appraise the value of the cargoes of the schooners Lilly L., 

 San Jose, Annie, Allie I. Algar, Ellen, Sylvia Handy, and the schooner 

 Angel Dolly, her small boats, tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargo, beg 

 to submit: 



That in commencing their labors of appraising the fur-seal-skins 

 stored in the Government warehouse, their progress was greatly im- 

 peded by the unsystematic manner in which they were stored, the 

 various lots, instead of having been separately stacked and labeled, 

 had been promiscuously thrown in heaps, without pretense to order or 

 system. A number of the sacks had been partially destroyed and ren- 

 dered useless, having been gnawed by rats; and from the same cause 

 about a dozen pelts were found to have been damaged. Many of the 

 tags, with which the greater part of the sacks had been marked, were 

 also destroyed by rats and carried off by them to build nests with, as 

 was afterwards ascertained. In order to bring some system into the 

 chaos and to enable your appraisers to proceed with their duties, your 

 honorable court was requested to enlarge their powers by intrusting 

 them to assort out and count by sacks the number of pelts belonging 

 to the other vessels, not included in the lists to be appraised. Under 

 such instructions that portion of the pelts were removed to an adjoin- 

 ing room in the warehouse, and after ascertaining the number of pelts 

 contained in each sack (by opening a quantity of various sizes) to be 

 five (5) bundles or ten (10) pelts to a sack. Each vessel's lot was ap- 

 proximated accordingly, the result of which count is herewith sub- 

 mitted, to wit: 



Schooner Grace: Pelts. 



78 sacks, supposed to contain 769 



Schooner Dolphin : 



62 sacks, supposed to contain 618 



Schooner Annie Beck: 



33 sacks, supposed to contain 335 



Schooner Ada: 



189 sacks, supposed to contain 1, 873 



Schooner Sayward : 



48 sacks, supposed to contain 474 



Schooner Alfred Adams: 



139 sacks, supposed to contain 1, 379 



Schooner Lottie Fairfield : 



44 sacks, supposed to contain 443 



Schooner Kate and Ann : 



58 sacks, supposed to contain 577 



Schooner Alpha : 



39 sacks, supposed to contain ^. 387 



Making a total of 690 sacks, supposed to contain 6,855 pelts. 



Besides the above there remains an excess of ten (10) sacks and three 

 pelts to make up for deficiencies in the various lots. 



The appraisement of the property to be appraised, consisting of fur- 

 seal skins, is as follows by actual count and inspection, to wit: 



Schooner Angel Dolly : 



] 75 salted fur-seal skins $873. 00 



Schooner Annie : 



304 salted fur-seal skins # $1, 475. 50 



Schooner San Jos4: 



891 salted fur-seal skins 4,601.25 



Schooner Sylvia Handy : 



1,678 salted fur-seal skins 8,323.25 



