RELATING TO FUR-SEALS AND SEALSKIN INDUSTRY. 359 



were always in bundles and none were opened except a few which were 

 opened by the company's officer to see what condition the skins were 

 in. I never saw more than two skins in any bundle so 

 opened, nor did I ever see a bundle I judged contained 01 J™ two skin™ tain 

 more than two Skins. If there had been more than two 

 skins in a bundle it would have at once been noticed because of the 

 size and shape of the bundle. If more than two skins had been placed 

 in a bundle it would have been more difficult to handle the cargo, and 

 it certainly could not have been handled as rapidly as it was by us. 

 As we brought the skins up from the hold a custom-house officer and 

 the first officer of the vessel tallied the number of skins before we put 

 them on the wharf. I also superintended the unload- 

 in s of all the furs received by the Alaska Commercial . same with skins 



' » wi *"" , ,, ,% ■■ i • • t j> from Commander Is- 



Company, and among others the sealskins received from lands, 

 the Commander Islands. The bundles received from the 

 hitter were of much the same shape as those from the Pribilof Islands. 

 Among those bundles which were opened I never saw one that con- 

 tained more than two skins, or a bundle I thought contained more than 

 that number. The same rule as to counting and packitig in casks was 

 followed in relation to the skins from the Russian side as was followed 

 in relation to the Alaska skins. 



Jas. B. Brown. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 16th day of November, A. D. 

 1892. 

 [seal.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Public. 



Deposition of William Healy Ball, scientist. 



District of Columbia, 

 City of Washington, ss : 



Personally appeared before me William Healy Dall, of Washington 

 aforesaid, who, being duly sworn, deposes and says: 



I learn that I have been quoted in the report of the British Bering 

 Sea Commissioners for the purpose of proving that co- . ... 



... . I a 1 1 j 1 1 T" J_* OOltlOll 111 tUG SOil. 



ltion at sea is practiced by the seals. In connection 

 therewith I have to say that my statements as to copulation in the 

 water rest largely upon assumption. Young bachelor seals are seen to 

 chase females leaving the rookeries and to play with them in the water; 

 pairs of seals are seen engaged in a sort of struggle together and to re- 

 main caressing each other or apparently quiescent, sometimes for as much 

 as an hour. From such facts, which I myself with others observed and 

 reported, it was considered not unlikely that these seals were of oppo- 

 site sexes, and that they were engaged in copulation, and, in the 

 absence of definite information to the contrary at tb*it time, I so stated 

 to Dr. Allen, who made use of the note on p. 100, Vol. I, of the Bulletin 

 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. But it would be dangerous 

 to rely upon these observations thus casually made, at a time when seal 

 life was not so well understood as now, to prove that coition in the wa- 

 ter is practiced. I never had an opportunity to assure myself that the 

 pairs of seals seen playing were of opposite sexes, or, if they were, that 

 their play was of a sexual nature, or if it was, that the act was com- 

 plete and effective. There does not seem to be any way in which any 

 one of these matters can be definitely proved. Even if they were shown 

 to be possible and to occur at times, the general belief in it by casual 

 observers at one time, myself among the number, was always, as far as 



