380 TESTIMONY 



Deposition of Martin Myer, handler and packer of raw furs. 



State of California, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss.: 

 Martin Myer, of the city of San Francisco, in the State of California, 

 being duly sworn, deposes and says: 

 That he is by occupation a handler and packer of raw furs; that iu 

 such capacity he has been for the past twenty years, 

 Experience. alJ( j gti jj ^ em pi yed by the Alaska Commercial Com- 



pany; that while said company was the lessee of the Pribilof Islands 

 he was present at the wharf in San Francisco on nearly every occasion 

 when the company's vessels unloaded the skins of the fur-seal taken on 

 the Pribilof Islands by said company's agents; that said skins, of 

 which he has handled and packed in casks hundreds 

 erthfiriife skin8 in of thousands, are packed in bundles, each of which 

 contains two skins; that it would be impossible to put 

 three skins in one bundle and roll them in such a way that the flesh 

 side of one of the skins would not be exposed and the fact at once be- 

 come apparent to any person examining the skins so bundled; that it 

 would be impossible to roll four skins into one bundle, as the sides of 

 the skins could not be turned in and the bundle then rolled and tied 

 up. 

 And deponent further says : 



That when a vessel arrives from the Pribilof Islands with a consign- 

 ment of skins the bundles, as they were unloaded, 

 shipment of sidus were counted by an officer of the United States custom- 



froiu ban Francisco. , . , J , , » ,, ... n .. 



house and also an employe ot the Alaska Commercial 

 Company; that perhaps a dozen or twenty bundles were opened to ex 

 amine their condition and the amount of blubber and salt with which 

 they were packed; but that not over one hundred such bundles were 

 ever opened in any one year: that since 1879 after said fur-seals were 

 counted, as above stated, in bundles, the bundles were packed on the 

 wharf in casks, frotn twenty- five to thirty bundles being placed in each 

 cask ; that as fast as each cask was filled it was at once taken to the 

 railroad station and shipped directly to C. M. Lainpson & Company, 

 London. 



And deponent further says : 

 That never during his experience of twenty years has he seen a 



bundle of Alaska fur-seal skins opened which contained 

 skfns V fn'l a b V unTiie tw0 more than two skins, and that he never saw a bundle 



that he judged to contain more than two skins; that 

 if such bundles had been seen by him he would at once have recognized 

 the fact from the shape of such bundle. 



Martin Myer. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 14th day of November, A. D. 

 1892. 

 [seal.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Public. 



Deposition of Rudolph Neumann agent of AlasTca Commercial Company. 



State of California, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss: 

 Rudolph Neumann, being duly sworn, deposes and says: 

 That he is the resident agent of the Alaska Commercial Company at 

 Ex erience Unalaska in the Territory of Alaska, and that for the 



past twenty years he has been employed in the pur- 



